Poland: Soon growing demand for own organic products?

According to the "Ökomarkt Forum", the Polish Ministry of Agriculture allotted an amount of about 3.1 Mio Euro to the promotional campaign that is starting this year. "Ökomarkt Forum (Eco-market Forum)" is the magazine of the German Central reporting of market and prices information for agricultural, forest and food products. In the course of last year, the number of organic farms (2005: 7,183 businesses) and the organically managed area (2005: 167,740 ha) has doubled.

However, there are only a hundred, mostly smallish organic processing businesses in Poland. There is no information on their share of the national market.

Polish products are more successfully marketed abroad than in the state itself. The producers often lack the financial means in order to promote thier eco-products more effectively and in order to sell them not only in specialised organic shops, but also in spuermarkets, says the "Ökomarkt Forum". The shops offering eco-products often belonged to chains that are planning to decidedly raise the number of their branches this year. The "Ökomarkt Forum" furthermore states that there was also a restaurant chain offering organic meals alongside conventional food that wants to expand its engagement in this field. www.ekoconnect.org