Poland is biggest producer of black currants, but in crisis

Poland is the largest producer of black currants in EU, but the current situation in the sector is pretty bad because of overproduction. The worlds production of black currants is estimated on 320-360 thousand MT and acreage – on 70-82 thousand hectares (the largest producer is Russia with yearly crop of 100-120K MT, but there are almost no commercial plantations in this country). The majority of black currants used in the EU come from Poland, while the rest comes from Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary, United Kingdom and France. Fresh and processed fruits are important in the European trade. They are used for juice and nectar production and as a component of dairy products. Fresh black currant fruits are important on the Swedish and German market only.

In the past years black currant production in Poland was profitable, so many growers started new plantations, sometimes as big as a few hundred hectares (the largest one was almost 500 hectares). As a result the 2006 crop exceeded 140 thousand MT and the grower prices were as low as 0,10 €/kg in 2004 and 0,18-0,26 €/kg in 2005 (the profitable price for growers in EU-15 is estimated at 0,5-0,6 €/kg), which didn’t even cover the cost of production. According to experts the production of black currants in Poland can be profitable only when the European crop does not exceed 200K MT (including up to 130K MT in Poland) and with the large scale promotion of black currants health properties in EU.

Source:freshplaza.com