Changing profitability of Polish poultry production

Poultry production in Poland is one of the strongest and most profitable branches of national agriculture. Hundreds of large and small poultry farms produce millions of chickens, hens and eggs yearly.

Over half of poultry production in Poland is exported to various countries in eastern and western Europe. Recently, however, owners of broiler and hen farms in Poland are facing new concerns of very low market prices and imminent rules that enforce farmers to change the old laying cages for new ones. A World Poultry photo report:

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From the first of January 2012, all farms that breed laying hens must have cages that fulfill all the requirements put by Brussels. However this certainly will engulf huge financial means that are outside the reach of the common Polish poultry breeder.
Renata and Jan Amrozinscy from the small village of Warszyce situated in Central Poland have been breeding laying hens since 1994.
“We come from a big city and moved to Warszyce seduced by the quickly developing poultry branch” says Renata Amrozinscy. “At first we bred broilers although in the course of time we convinced ourselves that the breeding of laying hens is more profitable.”
Along with Poland’s accession to the EU came requirements concerning the equipment in farm buildings and surroundings of the poultry farms. Breeders have already engaged huge sums of money to better their farms but now in a very short space of time have to purchase expensive new cages for laying hens.
“We can’t afford to change the old cages to new ones in a year. Moreover, the exchange of cages is not enough since we will have to adapt the whole poultry-house due to the different dimensions of the cages” says Amrozinscy.
"It will mean that through next year we’ll have to spend almost million zlotys to fulfill all the requirements of Brussels. For example, an egg grading machine costs about 500,000 zlotys (over €120,000)."
"Additionally, as the birds require more space in the cages, there is less capacity in the poultry house. Before we were able to accomodate 44,000 birds and in the future it will be only 28,000" – she adds.
“However, all the time we are paying off our latest bank credit meaning that no other bank can give us further credit. In this way, we found ourselves in a critical situation – neither can we buy new cages, nor we can pay off the previous bank credit and adjust the poultry-house to new EU requirements,” explain Amrozinscy.
Poultry producers in Poland had counted on the Polish government succeeding in delaying the deadline of cages’ exchange until 2015 and were very disappointed when the efforts of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture in Brussels came to nothing.
“It’s frustrating not to be sure what will happen...even in the near future. We don’t know what to do now – close the business or add thousands more without any certainty of getting profits,” says Renata Amrozinscy, with bitterness in her voice.