Role of the food industry in Poland’s economy

Abstract

The purpose of the work was to indicate the role of food industry enterprises in Poland. The paper presents comparative analyses over time, using the longest time horizon possible in terms of access to data. The work used statistical data published by the Central Statistical Office of Poland and Eurostat. A comparative analysis of the size of the food industry to the size of industrial processing was also used. When determining the physical availability of food that is provided by agriculture and the food industry, agricultural balances were used and the food self-sufficiency ratio calculated (i.e. the relation between domestic production and domestic use). The supply approach was used in line with the theory of industry structure. History confirmed that the agricultural raw material processing industry is more often located in the central and western parts of Poland. The production sold by over 17,000 entities (243 billion) constitutes over 1/5 of sold production of industrial processing. Every sixth employee in industrial processing is employed in the food industry, and their number has increased in recent years to 422,600. Despite the decrease in the number of enterprises, the value of sales of their products is growing, which is influenced partly by increasing production volume. The number and importance of large enterprises is growing. Although they constitute less than 2%, they are responsible for almost 56% of the value of sales, employing 46% of the employees. The phenomenon of food industry concentration has been growing in recent years. The degree of food self-sufficiency is maintained in most products. Apart from a few products, domestic consumption decreases when domestic production increases. The limited absorbency of the internal market, with growing imports, forces food industry companies to develop exports.