In recent years, Poland has become the largest producer of mushrooms in the EU, ahead of the Netherlands, but also the world's biggest exporter, with 35% of all imported mushrooms coming from Polish producers, as stated in an interview with PAP by Bozena Nosecka, of the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics (IAFE). She added that Polish mushrooms are not only cheap, but also high quality, partly because they are harvested by hand.
Polish mushroom producers actually escaped the impact of the Russian embargo, with export volumes actually increasing slightly compared to the previous year. In the second half of 2014, Poland's total mushroom exports amounted to 97.2 thousand tonnes, compared to 96 thousand tonnes in the second half of 2013.
Nosecka added that export volumes increased the most in Belarus. In the second half of last year, this country bought more than 16 thousand tonnes of Polish mushrooms compared to 6.6 thousand tonnes a year earlier. Exports to the Czech Republic, Latvia and Germany also increased. The biggest importers of Polish mushrooms are currently Germany and the United Kingdom.
In the whole of 2013, exports amounted to 195.4 thousand tonnes, with a value of 291 million Euro. In 2014, shipments totalled 203.5 thousand tonnes worth 293 million Euro.
Source: portalspozywczy.pl