Polish Sugar Industry Development

Poland, and its sugar market, represents very specific phenomenon among countries producing primarily sugar from sugar beet. Polish sugar production is relatively high in comparison to other European countries and have not negligible export potential. Main aim of presented contribution is to identify main trends and important specifics connected to sugar industry development between years 2000 and 2017. From the analyses of Polish sugar industry and sugar market following findings could be concluded. Production of sugar beet is constantly developing toward more intensive production; mainly yield, sugar content and average cultivated area per one grower increased significantly, but still Polish producers belongs among the smallest in the whole EU. Production is also subsidised by coupled national payment of 380 EUR/ha. Polish market underwent significant restructuring that on one side resulted in significant reduction of amount of sugar refineries and sugar beet producers. On the other hand, it resulted in considerable concentration of production capacities among subjects that successfully passed the transformation phase. Despite reduction of sugar refineries from original 76 to 18, sugar beet production remained almost unchanged at the level of 12 million tonnes. Also raw sugar production remained almost unchanged and during the period oscillated around the level of 2 million tonnes. On contrary production of white sugar increased significantly from 1.54 million tonnes in 2001 to 2.1 million tonnes in 2016. Reduction of sugar refineries was in this perspective compensated by the modernisation of production facilities and increase of their processing capacities. Between 2001 and 2016 length of sugar campaign increased from average 51 days to about 112 days. The average processing capacity of one sugar refinery grew by tens of percent. At present all production capacities are controlled by only four actors (Krajowa Spolka Cukrowa S.A., Nordzucker Polska S.A., PfeiferL Sudzucker Polska S.A and Pfeifer&Langen, both owned by German capital. Polish sugar export was not harmed significantly during transformation period. Recently it oscillates around 0.5 million tonnes annually. Increasing unit price per kilogram of exported sugar is considered as positive and important factor that pushed total value of exports to approximately 240 million EUR. Extreme territorial concentration is seen as a weak point of Polish sugar foreign trade. Top 10 countries participate on Polish exports and imports with sugar approximately by 72.56% and 92.94% respectively (2016).