The growing Polish poultry industry, host of ESPN 2019

During the inauguration of ESPN 2019, Prof. Andrezj Rutkowski presented the greatest challenges facing the Polish poultry industry.

Ruiz B 90x90 Headshot
Prof. Andrezj Rutkowski spoke about Polish poultry farming at the inauguration of ESPN 2019. (Benjamín Ruiz)
Prof. Andrezj Rutkowski spoke about Polish poultry farming at the inauguration of ESPN 2019. (Benjamín Ruiz)

The European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition (ESPN 2019) has become one of the most important and most attractive technical conferences in the field of poultry production.

At the opening of the event, which brought together more than 1,800 people from 76 countries in Gdansk, Poland, Prof. Andrezj Rutkowski, president of the Polish branch of the World's Poultry Science Association (WPSA), was one of the main speakers. Rutkowski said that the poultry industry in his country has grown at an average rate of 3 percent a year in the last two decades.

Poultry production in Poland

Currently, 89 percent of the poultry production in Poland is related to broilers, and only 5 percent involves eggs. The rest of the production is from other species, from which ducks and turkeys stand out.

Since 2014, Poland is the largest poultry producer in Europe, producing 16.8 percent of the total in the European Union. A total of 2.09 million metric tons (MT) of chicken was produced last year in this country, and 50 percent of that (1.05 million MT) was exported by poultry farmers. 

Poland is a large producer and exporter of chicken in the EU, among other things, because the average cost of the carcass is 65 percent of what it costs on average in Europe, and much lower than in Germany, Sweden or France, and other countries.

Poland-Chicken

The per capita chicken consumption in Poland is 28.4 kg per year. (Benjamin Ruiz)

Poland also produces turkeys, a total of 493,000 tons in 2018, of which 189,000 tons were exported. It is also a large producer of ducks, with 52,000 tons, of which Polish poultry farmers exported 19,000 tons.

The egg production for consumption is 9.407 billion units, with an average production per hen of 218 eggs per year. The country exports 50 percent of its eggs.

Risks for the Polish poultry industry

Poultry production in Poland is affected by four main risks, namely the availability of raw materials, public opinion, avian influenza, and Brexit.

Polish public opinion has deep prejudices, similar to those of the rest of the world, such as the concept of animal welfare or the use of animal proteins in feeds, Rutkowski said. 

As for raw materials, given the conditions of the current trade war, Europe as a major soy importer is in need of alternatives. A major barrier is a ban on the use of gentically modified organisms (GMOs), such as in soybeans in animal feeds.

On the other hand, Rutkowski, the presence of wild geese represents a latent risk of spread of the avian influenza virus, and the Polish poultry producers are aware of it.

Finally, Brexit can be very harmful to Poland because the United Kingdom receives many of its exports. “When you only have 5 percent excess production and it is exported, stopping it produces a crisis. But if you export 50 percent of your production, the impact can be very serious,” said Rutkowski.

Page 1 of 33
Next Page