Europe <strong>and</strong> the 6th largest producer of potatoes <strong>in</strong> the world <strong>and</strong> the 2nd <strong>in</strong> Europe. As regards meat production, <strong>in</strong> particular pork, as well as milk <strong>and</strong> hen eggs Pol<strong>and</strong> ranks among the 15 biggest producers <strong>in</strong> the world <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> Europe. Due to low profitability of agricultural production <strong>and</strong> difficulties <strong>in</strong> sell<strong>in</strong>g agricultural commodities produced on farms, there was a grow<strong>in</strong>g tendency to leave agricultural l<strong>and</strong> fallow <strong>and</strong> idle. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to the General Agricultural Census conducted <strong>in</strong> 2002, the total area of arable l<strong>and</strong> left fallow <strong>and</strong> idle was 2.3 million ha, which accounted for 17.6% of its total area. In 2003 the area of fallow <strong>and</strong> idle l<strong>and</strong> dim<strong>in</strong>ished to 1.8 million ha. Reduction of plant production <strong>and</strong> disadvantageous price relationship of agricultural products result <strong>in</strong> a systematic decrease <strong>in</strong> the share of <strong>agriculture</strong>, forestry <strong>and</strong> hunt<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> GDP. Figure 5. Share of <strong>agriculture</strong>, forestry <strong>and</strong> hunt<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the Gross Domestic Product (%) 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Source: GUS Value of agricultural production <strong>and</strong> price relationship In 2003, the total agricultural production was valued at PLN 56.3 billion (Euro 12.8 billion) <strong>and</strong> was by almost 10% lower than <strong>in</strong> 1990. Plant production fell by 21.2%, whereas the value of animal production <strong>in</strong>creased by 2.2% <strong>in</strong> the period <strong>in</strong> question. Table 1. Dynamics of total agricultural production (<strong>in</strong> comparable prices) Source: GUS 6 5,5 4,8 AGRICULTURE 4, 1 6 3,4 3,1 3,3 2,7 2,6 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Specification 2000 2001 2002 2003 2003 Previous year = 100 1990=100 1995=100 Total agricultural production 94,4 105,8 98,1 99,2 90,3 98,0 – plant 94,2 108,6 93,3 94,3 78,8 87,4 – animal 94,7 102,5 103,4 104,8 102,1 111,4 Commercial production 96,0 102,9 104,2 105,2 107,3 123,0
AGRICULTURE Between 1990 <strong>and</strong> 2003 commercially-oriented production fluctuated from 62.5% <strong>in</strong> 1990 to 50.1% <strong>in</strong> 1995 <strong>and</strong> to 64.9% <strong>in</strong> 2003. A large part of agricultural production is used for self-supply on farms <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>ternal usage for the purposes of animal production (animal feed<strong>in</strong>gstuffs). Despite a fall <strong>in</strong> the value of plant production, its share <strong>in</strong> the total production cont<strong>in</strong>ues to be higher than that of animal production, whereas <strong>in</strong> the case of commercial production the situation is reverse. Figure 6. Structure of total agricultural production <strong>in</strong> 1995 <strong>and</strong> 2003 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 58,6 41,4 52,8 47,2 1995 2003 Plant production Animal production Cereals Potatoes Industrial plants Vegetables Fruit Other plant production Animals for slaughter Cow’s milk Hen eggs Other animal production Source: GUS 7 23,6 15,4 26,4 11,8 2,7 3,3 11,4 4,5 0,9 1995 2003 8,8 4 17,2 6,1 18,4 7,4 4,7 15,2 7 4,5 6,7