EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A NURSERY

Good fruit production largely depends on high quality trees from the nursery

- Is the Kielce's debut- HORT-TECH expo a good idea?

 - Targi Kielce is located not far from orchard stretches in Sandomierz and its vicinity, also parts of Radom region, so I think the expo may be a good option for fruit growers or nurseries.  I also take part in the event, I am one of the speakers at the Fruit & Vegetable Conference which accompanies HORT-TECHNKA Expo. It all eventually starts with high-quality nursery material.  I will also talk about the new fruit trees varieties.

- Can we talk about fashions in nursery production?

 - New trees varieties worth investing in appear every seasons, just like fashion. Of course the market and demand are to decide.  Among the cherries Łutówka has dominated for decades, among pear Konferencja holds the sway.  Fashion of apple-tree varieties is more diversified - most popular are Idaret, Ligol, Gala. The Red Delicious comes as a novelty.  

 - Polish tree nursery is doing well? Where is the greatest number of nurseries?

 - The number of officially registered nurseries is fewer than 300 in 2014.  Much fewer than 10 years ago when Poland officially boasted more than 1,000 nurseries.   Now the greatest number of nurseries are to be found Lublin province.  The second region in terms nurseries number is Mazowieckie voivodeship with its centre for the orchard production. Małopolska, Silesian and Podkarpackie Voivodeships come third.

- What problems do nursery farms face?

 - We want to produce the highest level nursery material, but our climatic conditions are not favourable to us - a short vegetation season and winters which can be surprising.  However the real challenge for the modern nursery farming in Poland is unfavourable agricultural structure.  Finding a greater area of ​​cultivation land is a challenge. As you know, in order to achieve the best results you need to expand.  Another significant problem that emerged this year with plenty has been the drought; many nurseries needed intense irrigation.  Mazowieckie nurseries do not have greater problems,  but nurseries in Lublin  find it a huge development impediment.

- How many trees are produced in Poland a year and what markets are hey intended for?

- According to the Main Inspectorate of Plant Health and Seed Inspection, in 2014 in Poland "made" there were 10 million 386 thousand new qualified trees, which means the highest quality trees as well as 24 million 868 CAC category trees which meet the minimum requirements.

 The Polish trees - the so-called qualified nursery material are mainly sent to Polish growers who, those who put high quality on top of their priority list and have high expectations. As you know Poland is a giant when it comes to apple production, thus the needs of Polish fruit growers are enormous. We enjoy a dominant position, in the world we are ranked among the top three leaders. Not only are we an important apples producer, but we also produce lost of cherries.  CAC nursery material is in great demand with European countries.

- Where do we export Polish trees?

 -Our target markets are the first and foremost the former Soviet bloc countries; they look for good quality nursery material at an affordable price. These are mainly Belarus, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan - a few millions of Polish trees are sent there every year.  The other exports target are amateur plantations and orchards, about 1-2 million trees a year in the Central and Eastern Europe. These are countries like:  Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.  Polish nurseries export several million CAC trees to Western Europe, they are sold in large retail chains, garden centres.

- Thank you for the conversation.