PRODUCTION OF LIVE PIGS IN POLAND – CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS

• Published in: Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists Vol. XXI; no. 1; pp. 101 - 110
• Main Author: Ziętara, Wojciech
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists 11.03.2019
• Subjects: competitiveness; pig farms; pig population; production of live pigs
• ISSN: 2657-781X; 2657-7828
• DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0013.0859

The article presents the current situation of Polish farms oriented towards pig breeding, resulting from a drastic reduction in the pig population after 2007 which took place in farms holding up to 200 pigs. The assessment covered the production and economic activity of pig farms, by determining their efficiency and competitiveness against a background of similar farms from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain. The results of analyses show that the major factor determining production efficiency and competitiveness of Polish pig farms was the production scale stemming from a very low level of breeding concentration in comparison with farms from countries analysed. In 2013, on average, on Polish farms, there were 41 pigs, while in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, there were 3096, 2285 and 587 pigs, respectively. Large Polish farms (economic size of EUR 100-500 thousand SO) were able to compete and very large farms were fully competitive. The major causes of a weak Polish pig production sector have been indicated and include a low level of concentration, no links between pig producers and commercial/meat processing plants as well as the existence of barriers preventing investment in livestock buildings adapted to a greater production scale.