The import of low-quality cherries during the Polish season is posing a significant challenge for local cherry producers. It’s in essence, negating the appeal of Polish cherries – orchard owners stress. Consumers seek appealing, large, and sweet fruits and are ready to pay a premium for them, but these are often lacking in large retail chains. The position of individual fruit growers vis-a-vis the networks is simply too weak. “As producers, we see a need to form an association. We could then sell large batches of uniform goods to the networks. A cherry distribution center would also be a viable solution,” argues Krzysztof Czarnecki, a cherry producer and vice president of the Union of Orchard Owners of the Republic of Poland.
“The consumer wants beautiful, plump, shiny, tasty goods, and we have to produce such cherries if we want to remain in the domestic market and export. The challenge for cherry producers, and the Polish government in general, is to do something about the import of low-quality cherries, especially during the later ripening period of the Polish fruit. Very poor quality cherries are brought in supermarkets from halfway through the season, which are a total turn-off for us,” says Krzysztof Czarnecki to the Newseria Biznes agency.
Cherries are becoming an increasingly popular choice of fruit. A recent study by Kantar Public within the “Core Team – fruit and vegetable consumption promotion” project indicates that in June, cherries were only second to strawberries in popularity. 71% of consumers claimed to consume them – a 28-point increase compared to June 2023. By the end of the season in July, cherries and raspberries took third place with a 55% consumption level. Large cherries with a diameter of about 3 cm were particularly favored, even if lower prices did not encourage the purchase of smaller, lower-quality ones – these are the cherries that are largely imported into Polish supermarkets. Cherries from Southern Europe also began appearing at bazaars and local markets – although the Ministry of Agriculture reports that they were often mislabeled.
“In markets, people don’t buy these cherries because they are of poor quality. In smaller stores and at marketplaces, they are super quality, but in most large retail chain markets we get poor quality imported cherries,” states the expert.
The Association of Polish Orchardists reports that imported cherries, primarily from Turkey, dominated the shelves of network stores at the very onset of the Polish cherry harvest.
“The situation with retail chains has been challenging to negotiate for years. Even firms dealing with networks have issues with this. This cherry does not have to have a bad reputation; instead, beautiful Polish cherry can be sold there, attractively packaged for the consumer to buy. We will definitely try to talk to the retail chains about this issue,” promises the vice president of the Association of Polish Orchardists. “We see beautifully packed cherries in small 0.5-1 kg packages abroad in supermarkets. They are not crushed in boxes as they are in our networks.”
The fragmentation in Polish agriculture and horticulture is another issue. The Agency for Restructuring and Moderation of Agriculture estimates that the average size of a farm in Poland is around 11 hectares. In comparison, farms in Germany, France, or Denmark are much larger. Polish agriculture is also poorly organized, with only a small percentage of farmers belonging to cooperatives. However, as the dairy industry shows, joining a cooperative can bring many benefits.
“Store chains want to sign contracts for large cherry deliveries. A small orchard owner will not sign a contract with a network because they simply don’t have such a large amount of cherries. There is also a risk because we don’t know if there will be frosts or hail. I believe we need a cherry distribution center, for instance, in central Poland. We need to establish a group of cherry producers to be able to sell large batches of uniform goods since we currently lack this,” the expert explains.
In 2022, the Central Statistical Office of Poland estimated cherry crops in the country at 77,000 tons, and in 2023 – at approximately 69,000 tons. Due to adverse weather conditions, fruit production this year is significantly smaller – the preliminary estimate by the Central Statistical Office indicates that it will decrease by about 24% to 52,100 tons this year. Most of it goes to the domestic market.
“As cherry producers, we see a need to form a group that will have a larger potential. Then we can get something done and meet the needs of the superstores. Trade goes both ways. Most of my cherries end up abroad, in the Czech Republic and Germany, and others are imported into Poland from other countries. As manufacturers, we don’t mind importing high-quality cherries, which are more expensive than ours, because they don’t do bad work but rather bring up the price,” assures Krzysztof Czarnecki. “The problem is cheap, low-quality fruit.”
