Juices, frozen meals, poultry meat, fish, oil, cigarettes, coffee, chocolate, bakery and confectionery products, cheese and pork – nearly all things Polish are being sold abroad today, and the “Made in Poland” label is no longer regarded as synonymous with cheap products, not necessarily of top quality.
The data of the Ministry of Agriculture are unambiguous: last year, Poland exported EUR 24.1 billion worth of foods, which is 1.2% more than the year before. As much as 81.3% of the products reached the tables of EU countries. It is worth noting that the largest recipient of foods was the demanding German market, reached as much as 22.6% of Polish agri-food products. The UK comes second among the countries purchasing our foodstuffs, as we have sold EUR 2.1 billion worth of goods there, i.e. 5.6% more than the year before. Compared with the previous year, there was a 30% rise in the sales of such goods as biscuits and wafers, the sales of sausages and cigarettes grew by 27%, and sales of mushrooms by 14%.
This is an astonishing result, considering that just more than a dozen years ago, when we were entering the European Union, there were many indications that neither our agriculture nor our industry would be able to cope with Western competition aided by good brands, efficient logistics as well as systems enabling optimization of production costs and supervision of production quality. This is best illustrated by the balance that amounted to EUR 0.5 billion back in 2004, and today, it is nearly twenty times higher. How have we managed to achieve this?
Partly, this results definitely from the consistent promotion of Polish food on Western markets, our rapid development and the changes in perception of Poland in Europe, and consequently, in the perception of our products, as well as the maintenance of the price competitiveness. However, this would not be possible without the technological leap made by Polish companies, investment in modern machinery and IT solutions supporting company management.
The importance of technology is well illustrated by the implementation of the QAD system at the Farm Frites company, producing several dozen different products, including French fries for McDonald’s. The decision was made taking into account the dynamic development of production and the necessity to increase its flexibility as well as better response to the changes in market demand. This would have been unachievable without the support of technology. A year later, the project was augmented with the RF Express system. Thanks to the use of radio terminals, each part transferred for production at the potato flake line is immediately registered in an online mode in the system. This is very important in the context of tracking each component used for production, best-before dates and ready product batches, and, consequently, for the provision of optimal quality.
The statistics speak for themselves: as late as 2007, only 25% of medium-sized and 51% of large Polish enterprises had ERP systems supporting company management in place. In 2015, these statistics were, respectively, as follows: implementation of management support systems was admitted by 46% and 83% of Polish companies, respectively. It is easy to notice a correlation between the rise in exports of Polish products and IT investments. However, the field for optimization still remains quite wide. If we want to switch over to the league of manufacturers offering higher-quality products, if we wish to produce cheaper and faster, we have to constantly invest in technology. After all, our foreign competitors do the same thing.
Piotr Rojek,
President of the Board of DSR SA
The data of the Ministry of Agriculture are unambiguous: last year, Poland exported EUR 24.1 billion worth of foods, which is 1.2% more than the year before. As much as 81.3% of the products reached the tables of EU countries. It is worth noting that the largest recipient of foods was the demanding German market, reached as much as 22.6% of Polish agri-food products. The UK comes second among the countries purchasing our foodstuffs, as we have sold EUR 2.1 billion worth of goods there, i.e. 5.6% more than the year before. Compared with the previous year, there was a 30% rise in the sales of such goods as biscuits and wafers, the sales of sausages and cigarettes grew by 27%, and sales of mushrooms by 14%.
This is an astonishing result, considering that just more than a dozen years ago, when we were entering the European Union, there were many indications that neither our agriculture nor our industry would be able to cope with Western competition aided by good brands, efficient logistics as well as systems enabling optimization of production costs and supervision of production quality. This is best illustrated by the balance that amounted to EUR 0.5 billion back in 2004, and today, it is nearly twenty times higher. How have we managed to achieve this?
Partly, this results definitely from the consistent promotion of Polish food on Western markets, our rapid development and the changes in perception of Poland in Europe, and consequently, in the perception of our products, as well as the maintenance of the price competitiveness. However, this would not be possible without the technological leap made by Polish companies, investment in modern machinery and IT solutions supporting company management.
The importance of technology is well illustrated by the implementation of the QAD system at the Farm Frites company, producing several dozen different products, including French fries for McDonald’s. The decision was made taking into account the dynamic development of production and the necessity to increase its flexibility as well as better response to the changes in market demand. This would have been unachievable without the support of technology. A year later, the project was augmented with the RF Express system. Thanks to the use of radio terminals, each part transferred for production at the potato flake line is immediately registered in an online mode in the system. This is very important in the context of tracking each component used for production, best-before dates and ready product batches, and, consequently, for the provision of optimal quality.
The statistics speak for themselves: as late as 2007, only 25% of medium-sized and 51% of large Polish enterprises had ERP systems supporting company management in place. In 2015, these statistics were, respectively, as follows: implementation of management support systems was admitted by 46% and 83% of Polish companies, respectively. It is easy to notice a correlation between the rise in exports of Polish products and IT investments. However, the field for optimization still remains quite wide. If we want to switch over to the league of manufacturers offering higher-quality products, if we wish to produce cheaper and faster, we have to constantly invest in technology. After all, our foreign competitors do the same thing.
Piotr Rojek,
President of the Board of DSR SA
