Record revenues from food exports in 2020: Minister of Agriculture

In 2020, Poland achieved an unprecedented level of receipts from the export of agri-food products – €34 billion, so as much as €2 billion more than a year earlier, as Minister of Agriculture Grzegorz Puda announced during the videoconference. The minister noted that the increase in exports was influenced by many factors, including the favorable exchange rate of the zloty against the euro and the dollar, which favored competitiveness on the international market.

"Despite the pandemic, we managed to make even better use of our opportunities and make us a really big player in the agri-food market," the minister said.

He added that the share of foreign sales of agri-food products in total exports increased to 14.3 percent against 13.3 percent in 2019.

"This is a big leap and a great success of Polish agriculture and Polish exporters," Puda assessed.

According to the data of the Analyzes and Strategy Bureau of the National Center for Agricultural Support, last year's food imports amounted to €22.3 billion and were 4.9 percent higher than in 2019. As a result, the positive trade balance increased by 11.4 percent, reaching €11.7 billion.

The main trading partners of Poland are still the EU countries. In 2020, the value of Polish agri-food exports to the EU market increased by 5 percent to €27.2 billion, and exports gave 80 percent of total revenues from food exports.

An optimistic premise is the dynamically developing exports to non-EU markets, which proves the progressive diversification of trade through establishing new trade contacts and strengthening the already achieved position of Polish goods on the markets of third countries. In 2020, the value of exports of agri-food products from Poland to third countries increased by 17 percent up to €6.8 billion.

(PAP)