Imports of vegetables 2010-2020 to Poland

In 2019, the import of vegetables to Poland (aggregated category CN 07 - VEGETABLES AND CERTAIN ROOTS AND TUBERIES) amounted to 1281 thousand tonnes (1.3 billion tonnes) and 4395 million PLN (4.4 billion PLN) respectively. In volume terms, it was higher than in 2018 by as much as 40.1 percent, and in value terms, it increased by 26.9 percent year on year. Figures on vegetable exports from 2010 to 2019 are shown in the table and in the graphs below.

The figures for 2020 are extrapolations based on January-October 2020 data.

As can be seen in the first graph, the general long-term trend in terms of the volume of vegetable imports can be regarded as upward, but with a large lack of regularity. In value terms, this upward trend was more pronounced. In 2019, imports increased very significantly in terms of volume and maintained the upward trend in terms of value, although here, the dynamics were lower.

As far as 2020 is concerned, the values generated are based on CSO data from January-October 2020 and their extrapolation to November-December last year. The extrapolation was made on the basis of an estimate of the average relative share of imports from the months of November and December in relation to the total of these exports in 2017-2019. The result thus obtained gives vegetable imports in 2020 at the level of 1156 thousand tonnes (1.2 billion tonnes) and 4459 million PLN (4.5 billion PLN).

As can be seen above, the result of this estimate shows a quantitative decrease in Poland's vegetable imports in 2020 in relation to 2019, but the relative value of this decrease is only 9.7%. We write 'barely', bearing in mind how significant the increase in this category was the year before.

At the same time, our estimates show that the value of imports in this category increased by 1.5% in 2020 compared with 2019, so the upward trend in this respect has been maintained despite the reduction in volume.