POLISH NURSERYMEN ASSOCIATION
Spanning two hundred years of experience, following economic and political changes in late 1980s Poland’s hardy nursery stock sector is currently thriving. Since 1990 nursery stock production has been one of the fast growing sectors of agriculture. A high value crop with a relatively high output per unit area makes nursery stock production an important component of the country’s agriculture industry. It generates 6,35% of the total value of Poland’s agricultural plant production.
Founded in 1991, the Polish Nurserymen Association is the leading organization which is comprised of producers of the highest quality nursery stock. The association has 220 members representing 133 nurseries.
CLIMATE CONDITIONS
The transitional climate of Poland provides ideal growing conditions for a large range of hardy nursery stock products. The majority of the country belongs to the sixth climate zone. In comparison with Western Europe it naturally makes the stock offered by Polish nurserymen more hardy and frost resistant, particularly in relation to plants intended for export to East and North European Countries.
RANGE OF PRODUCTS
Poland’s hardy nursery stock sector covers a wide range of crop species (trees, shrubs, perennials, climbers and fruit plants) with different production techniques, field- cultivated or container-grown. In total, approximately over 6000 taxons are offered: 4000 species and cultivars of woody plants and about 2000 taxons of perennials. Due to domestic customers preferences as well as foreigner customers' demand, the most important group are conifers. However the production of deciduous shrubs, as well as climbers, perennials and avenue trees has been increasing.
NOVELTIES
Every year Polish nurseries introduce numerous new cultivars into the European market. The excellent Polish modern cultivars such as (photo 1) Berberis thunbergii ‘Maria’PBR, (photo 2) Picea glauca ‘Dendrofarma Gold’PBR, (photo 3) Clematis ‘Lemon Dream’PBR or (photo 4) Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Edward Gursztyn’PBR have won the most renowned innovation awards competition in Europe (Plantarium in Boskoop, Chelsea Flower Show in London, Green is Life in Warsaw).
COMPETITIVENESS
Poland’s hardy nursery stock conquers have broken into the European, Asian and American markets. The trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials from Poland have enjoyed recognition due to their high quality and competitive prices.
NURSERY COMPANIES
Most Polish nurseries are family businesses, some of them run by the representatives of 3 generations at a time. The median size of an operation is about 2 ha. Large nurseries (15% of the total number of companies) produce nearly 60% of the industry's value. Most of them are members of Polish Nurserymen Association. The companies have been taking advantage of improved production techniques and farm modernization. Thus, the total production area has been growing regularly as well as the number of bigger nurseries has been increasing.
INNOVATIONS
The increase in the size of the operations has been accompanied with their technical development, often supported with EU funds. Technical and technological advancement of Polish nurseries is based on:
efficient and water saving irrigation systems,
controlled release fertilizers and compound soluble fertilizers,
high quality substrates,
potting machines, complete assembly lines, lifting machines,
modern polytunnels and greenhouses blocks,
cold storage facilities.
CUSTOMERS
The Polish nursery stock industry is to a considerable extent export-oriented: foreign sales constitutes over 20% of value of ornamental stock production. The most important export destinations are: Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic, Slovakia. In addition, Polish nursery stock is exported to 40 other countries including Japan and the USA. The biggest category of export are deciduous shrubs and conifers. Crops such as rose shrubs, grafting material and tissue culture plants are also important.