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November 27, 2014

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Poland takes big bite of European fruit exports

By Zhou Yubin | November 27, 2014, Thursday | Print Edition

“JUST take it and eat,” a fellow Chinese reporter said while handing me an apple. We had just finished a press conference at the International Trade Fair of Polagra Food in Poznan, Poland.

I hesitated at first. This apple, after all, belonged to a basket of apples that looked like a decoration piece at the conference table, where Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki had just spoken to journalists from different countries. It seemed better not to eat from the basket just minutes after the conference. Secondly, as a Chinese, I have never tried eating a fruit without washing it properly.

But the apple she was holding looked really appealing. Not very big, but very red, its skin attractively smooth and shining. I looked around and found that the basket full of apples was already half empty and almost everyone around us was eating one. So I decided to give it a try and then was totally fascinated by how tasty, naturally fresh and juicy it was.

Poland’s apples have always been its signature crop. The country’s mild climate provides a perfect environment for apple trees. Poland, in fact, has a 1,000-year-plus history of apples and now is the largest apple producer in Europe.

But apples are certainly not the only thing Poland has to offer. In the next few days, the food kept surprising us with its freshness and authenticity, from a small family-run restaurant beside the highway to a traditional one in downtown Warsaw with a top ranking on tripadvisor.com.

The table settings and atmosphere in the restaurants might be different, but the food always had a natural and fresh taste — seeming to buck the trend in a world full of genetically modified and chemically grown products.

Nestled in the middle of Europe, Polish cuisine shares a lot of similarities with its neighbors, such as fellow Slavic countries Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Influences from Germany and Austria can also be found. This makes it hard to find a distinguishing feature for Polish cuisine. It is generally hearty with a lot of meat, dairy product and eggs, as well as winter vegetables such as cabbage and beetroot.

To make its food business and agriculture competitive within the European Union and even the world, the Polish people have been working hard on improving the safety, quality and creativity of their food products. Poland has a large number of private farms using natural and organic methods. More than 80 percent of the country’s pig herds are bred in individual family farms, where they feed on natural fodder, mainly grains.

The country also has launched different projects to encourage its agriculture industry, such as the Try Fine Food program, which aims to create a positive image of food products of high quality among domestic and foreign consumers.

As a result, the Polish agriculture business has boomed since its accession to the European Union in 2004, despite the economic recession across Europe. Polish food production, especially fruit, takes the top position on the European ranking list. Its agricultural exports have grown sixfold in 10 years, according to Ministry of Finance data. Its importers are mainly neighboring countries in Europe, topped by Germany.

“The past 25 years saw significant progress in Polish agriculture, rural areas and the food-processing industry,” Sawicki told the news conference. “Hard work by our farmers and processors, effective use of the pre-accession funds and the funds allocated under the Common Agricultural Policy schemes constituted the driving forces of dynamic increase in the Polish food products export.”

For consumers, those numbers may seem dry. But at the international trade fair, where more than 1,300 exhibitors from 45 countries took part, we looked at actual products, including apple juice, meat products, dairy products and sweets and desserts. The Polish food producers showed great ambition in developing their technology while keeping their food natural. One fruit-processing company, Royal Apple, has adopted a new preservation technique allowing its pure apple juice to stay fresh for 30 days without refrigeration.

Besides its freshness and taste, the price of Polish food also gives it a great competitive advantage. Typical prices are 20 percent or more below other European countries. Pure apple juice costs only around US$6 for 5 liters — only about half the price in China.

So a frequently asked question during our visit to the exhibition was: “When can this be exported to China?” And the answer is soon. There are now five train-cargo connections between China and Poland, which shorten the transportation to 12 days from 35 days by sea, and which are much economical than air transport. Maybe soon enough we can eat apples from Poland — and use them as home decoration pieces, too.

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