Dairy Production in Central Poland

The article discusses the present situation and prospects for development of dairy production in Central . Poland. This region encompasses 8 administrative provinces, and it is an agricultural region boasting a higher level of milt -cattle breeding and milk production than the national average. Despite difficulties prevailing in agricultural production at the present time the overall production of milk was growing in the period under survey reaching the volume of 2.7 billion litre in 1979. About 65 per cent of the overall production finds its way to over HO dairy factories through an effective network of purchasing points, where it is further processed or sent out to other regions of the country suffering from milk deficit. The dairy industry in Central Poland supplies a wide assortment of dairy products to the market to the tune of over 6 billion zloty i.e. ca. 13 per cent of the national market supply. However, processing of milk constitutes the weakest link in dairy production in this region and it calls for expansion of processing capacities. It refers mainly to these administrative provinces where we can observe today a surplus of milk supply over possibilities of processing it. These provinces include: Sieradz, Piotrków and Kalisz. In the next ten years is should be expected that consumption ol milk products will grow. It is predicted that the average per capita annual consumption (measured according to raw material i.e. milk) will reach about 540 litre per person (at present It amounts to 420 litre. This poses a task before the daire industry of expanding production of milk, further increasing the share of centralized purchasing in production, and increasing processing capacities of dairy co-operatives. While accomplishing these taske it is necessary to seek such methods and ways which involve the lowest financial outlays