Production Potential of Fruit-and-Vegelable Processing Industry in Central Poland and Factors Affecting Its Development

The present production capacity of the fruit-and-vegetable processing industry in eight administrative provinces of central Poland constituting the food-supply area for Łódź allows to process ca 60-70 thousand ton of fruit and 100 110 thousand ton of vegetables annually, which represents 27 per cent and 17 per cent of their annual pick respectively, and about 50 per cent and 40 per cent of their average purchases in a year characterized with quite good crops. The biggest production capacity is possessed by the food-processing industry of Skierniewice, Płock, Włocławek, and Kalisz provinces. Despite quite a considerable intensity of horticultural production in the vicinity of many plants, the supplies from other and sometimes quite distant provinces play a big role in processing of fruit and vegetables. This is especially true in case of fruit. Further desirable development of the processing industry in central Poland should envisage expansion of a network of small and medium-sized processing plants consuming 5 to 10 thousand ton of raw materials grown and picked in the radius of 15 kms from these plants. While choosing location for such plants preference should be given to the already operating small processing plants situated on areas of potential surpluses of horticultural production. This refers first of all to the administrative provinces of Sieradz, Piotrków, and Konin in which the level of output of the fruit-and-vegetable processing industry in relation to annual pick of vegetables and fruit and their centralized purchasing displays low indices. As regards the raw-material supply areas for majority of plants it becomes necessary to expand the area on which vegetables are grown to at least 3 thousand hectare and to 6 thousand hectare in ca se of fruit with adaptation of their qualitative and variety structure to requirements of the industry. Operations of this kind should pave the way for closer spatial and functional ties between the fruit-and-vegetable processing industry in central Poland and the local horticultural production