Assessment of development of the food industry in Poland against European Union countries

Introduction. This article aims at assessing the position of the Polish food industry in comparison tofood producers in the European Union. Material and methods. The development of the Polish food industry was assessed compared to selected EU food producers for 2003-2013 based on Eurostat data. Comparability of food industry data in individual EU Member States was obtained by adjusting the value of production at current prices with the EUR purchasing power index (parity) in individual EU Member States. Results and discussion. The Polish food industry stands out from the other EU Member States. The share of Poland in the value of marketed production of the EU-28 food industry is nearly 9%, which ranks us sixth in the EU. In 2003-2013, the value of food industry production in Poland increased by 60%, compared to 20% in the EU-15 and 42% in the EU-12/13. In 2003-2013, such animprovement in labour productivity in the food industry was a common phenomenon throughout the EU Member States. The largest increase in this period was recorded in Lithuania (96%), Bulgaria (77%) and Poland (61%). In the EU-12/13, labour productivity grew by 1/2, while in the EU-15 - by 1/4. This was due to a large investment boom and a drop in the number of employees. The processes of consolidation and concentration of the food industry continue. The average turnover value per food company in Poland (EUR 7.2 million) is nearly twice higher than the EU average (EUR 3.7 million), but much lower than in states with the highest production concentration in this sector, i.e.: Ireland (EUR 36.8 million), the UK (EUR 13.3 million), the Netherlands (EUR 10.2 million) or Denmark (EUR 9.7 million). However, it is higher than in Germany (EUR 5.9 million). Conclusion. Having analyzed the phenomenon, it can be concluded that the gap between the development of the food sector in Poland and the EU-15 is narrowing, while structures of the industry and market players are increasingly similar to the largest EU food producers. In the past decade, the pace of development of the Polish food industry was one of the fastest in the EU, thus improving the standing of our food industry in the Single European Market.