Ladies and Gentlemen,

In 2023, the Grain and Feed Chamber will host the 63rd edition of the European Commodities Exchange, which will be held for the first time in Central- Eastern Europe. We will be delighted to welcome you on 12-13 October at the Warsaw Expo XXI Centre. I am convinced that participants of the next edition of ECE will benefit from the cooperation, contracts and new experiences that the event will bring. I would like to invite you to contact our Chamber team today and book your October session.

For our Chamber, this will be an opportunity to present the potential of the Polish economy and agri-food sector. Another season of good harvest is already behind us, and the harvest of grain seeds has been successful in terms of both quality and yield, which in most regions of the country was better than a year ago. Data provided by the National Support Centre for Agriculture show that the sales value of agri-food products between January and May this year amounted to EUR 17.9 billion (PLN 82 billion), which represents a nearly 22% increase than in the same period last year. The Polish food processing industry recorded an increase in the value of marketed production (+2% year-on-year) within the first twelve months since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic (March 2020 – February 2021). Despite the health restrictions and policies, the supply chain was maintained, and the industry continued a positive export dynamics (+5% year-on-year). Furthermore, despite difficult economic conditions caused by the pandemic and only a slight increase in turnover, in the whole of 2020 the food processing sector noted a year-on-year aggregate net profit increase of 18%. Stable development, responsibility and development potential have made the Polish agri-food market a centre of interest for experts, businesspeople and investors from around the globe for many years.

However, we realize that Polish agriculture is not only determined by its successes but also by the challenges facing the global economy. Over time, problems caused by the pandemic have been followed by inflation and higher prices for raw material and energy. Today, our strategic challenge is to provide conditions so that the European and global agri-food sectors will develop in a way to meet societies’ food needs, even in extreme circumstances and crises.

Please accept my kind invitation to a discussion about cooperation, development and challenges.

Monika Piątkowska