A view of the Polish seed industry – part 1

The Polish flower seed market is complex and evolving. Many changes have been observed on all levels in the past 16 years since the installation of a free market in 1989/90.

It mainly resulted in an enlarged market for flower seeds, increased and concentrated breeding activities, increased export and import. The development of supermarkets and garden centres also forced new marketing activities. Many seed companies are now producing seed of Polish cultivars abroad and exporting seeds back to Poland.

Since 1989, overall Polish production of horticultural seeds (vegetables and flowers) has declined.

The main reason for this is the collapse of many horticultural-related state-owned businesses, such as large state units, greenhouse enterprises and municipal greenery companies, which used to form a large proportion of the sales market. However, surprisingly, the production of flower seeds has increased.

New elements

The flower seed sector has gained importance due to the development of new elements on the seed market (such as supermarkets, garden centres and transplant producers) as well as the rise in salaries and leisure time.

The availability of cheap vegetables all year round in the recently installed supermarkets has made the production of vegetables in allotments less important.

Nowadays only 50% of an allotment is under the production of vegetables and the remaining area is generally used recreationally, decorated with flowers, shrubs and trees, whereas 10 years ago almost 90% of an allotment was used for producing vegetables. Consequently, many seed companies, which used to sell only vegetable seeds, have recently diversified into flower seeds.

Today, the total number of flower seeds available on the Polish market is estimated at 50 tonnes, of which one half is being produced in Poland and the other half is imported from Polish and foreign companies.

Of these 50 tonnes available on the Polish market, at least 30 tonnes are produced by the Polish seed company W Legutko.

Areas of flower seed production within Poland are illustrated in figure 1 with the highest concentration of land under cultivation in the regions around the cities Wloclawek and Kalisz (both located in central Poland).

In Poland, seed companies hold contracts for seed production with many small-scale seed growers. These small scale production units of horticultural seeds are not legally bound to be registered, thus data for the total area of produced flower seeds is lacking.

Abroad

However, increasingly seed companies are locating their flower seed production abroad due to close to optimal climatic conditions and often lower production costs (ie in the Mediterranean, China, India, South Africa and Tanzania).

The favourable climatic conditions enhance the quality of the seeds produced. These climatic conditions further allow the seed-to-seed method, whereas in Poland the seed-to-transplant method is essential, thus shortening the production cycle and labour input.

Additionally, in the case of seed production in developing countries cheaper production costs, especially the cost for labour, have been an incentive to locate abroad.

In China, these costs are drastically reduced: in Poland the hourly wage for a field worker is around one €1, whereas in China a field worker is paid €1.5-2 for eight hours.

The production chain can be described as follows: flower seeds are produced abroad or in Poland, then shipped (if produced abroad) back to Poland, next cleaned, graded and finally sold, mainly in bulk.

The purchasers then store the seeds and as needed repack them into small retail bags ready for shipment and re-exportation to many countries, including Poland.

This trend for the production of Polish ornamental seed cultivars abroad and an increase in imports of these back into Poland is predicted to increase in the forthcoming years, thus decreasing seed production within Poland.

Further the introduction of foreign cultivars imported by foreign seed companies onto the domestic market will most probably lead to a decline in the total area of flower seed production within Poland.

W Legutko is the number one in the Polish flower seed business. He has been selling every fifth flower and vegetable small seed bag in Poland. 45% of his turnover comes from selling flower seeds.

Cultivars

Sourcing of flower seed cultivars derives from Polish breeding programmes and purchasing cultivars from foreign companies. Due to the fact that ornamental breeding programmes are not subsidised (in contrary to vegetable and agricultural crops, such as cereals), these have to be financed by the companies' own money.

Therefore, the majority of Polish seed companies concentrate their breeding efforts on major agricultural and vegetable species, except the following seed companies: W Legutko, Polan and PlantiCo Golbiew.

Still, most of the major and minor Polish seed companies source their seeds from W Legutko, as he has the biggest range and compared to what is on offer from foreign seed companies much lower prices.

In the trading season 2003/2004, this company offered around 386 different cultivars, followed by Rekwiat with 160 (table 2).

Though Rekwiat offered the second biggest assortment of flower seeds in Poland it is only a flower seed merchant. W Legutko holds the leading position for flower seed breeding and production.

Poland has been following the latest trends in breeding ornamental plants. These are: increased focus on the creation of dwarf compact patio and house plants; developing cultivars with a shorter production cycle, ie life cycle, such as creating perennials which flower in the first year after sowing; introducing new colours, such as breeding blue bedding salvias, and the breeding of repeat flowering plants.

The authors

•Sophie Loftus is a BSc Horticultural Crop Production student at Writtle College, a partner institution of the University of Essex. She has been a work placement student at the Department of Seed Science and Technology of the Cieszkowski Agricultural University of poznan, Poland. Dr Roman Holubowicz is associate Professor and Head of the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Faculty of Horticulture, at the August Cieszkowski Agricultural University of poznan, Poland.

Source:worldgrower.com