FNB News - India, Poland to step up food & agri trade

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India, Poland to step up food & agri trade

Saturday, 27 May, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Ronita Torcato

a half-century old and have been expanding at a rapid pace. Last year, major Indian companies signed several agreements on investments which are expected to create more than 3,500 new jobs in Poland. A brand new chapter was started May 19 this year with the signing of a cooperation pact aimed at boosting trade and investment between the two countries. The agreement was signed in Warsaw during an official visit by Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, the first by an Indian Cabinet Minister since 2000.

The Polish Economy Minister Piotr GrzegorzWozniak announced that Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has accepted an invitation to visit India at an unspecified date. On May 26, the Polish consul general in Mumbai Marek Moron made a presentation on the prospects for enhancing Indo-Polish trade. Current Indo-Polish bilateral trade stands at $250 million. Polish exports to India were worth U.S.$ 177 million from January to November 2005, The value of imports from India was $ 334.8 million in the same period.

Prior to the end of eighties, Poland was the second largest trade partner of India among the East European countries and India was Poland's largest trade partner from the developing countries. There was very good trade turnover and varied components of economic co-operation between the two countries included farm equipment. The import of agricultural and consumer goods by Poland was found satisfactory under the bilateral rupee trade.

India's exports to Poland comprise mainly of food and agriculture products i.e. tea, coffee, pepper, seeds of oil plants and rice. The dominant positions in Polish agricultural produce exports are processed fruit (about 14%), fish and fish products (about 8%), confectionery items (about 7%), pork (about 6%), processed vegetables (about 4%) and sugar (about 3%).

In the last five years, bilateral trade more than doubled from 251.20 million US dollars in 2001 to 564.83 million US dollars in 2005, according to an Indian Embassy release from Warsaw. Trade between Poland and India was worth U.S.$ 512 million in the first 11 months of 2005, according to the Polish economy ministry. In Warsaw, Nath said the figure should be higher. "We should be talking billions and not millions," he said, adding "I believe it's time that our warm political relations have an equally large economic content."

The main fields of possible cooperation include machinery and equipment for food industry, including flour mills, fish mill factories, construction of sugar plants, food processing equipment and services for irrigation, water supply and treatment, and sewerage plants. A five-member Polish trade delegation recently visited Mumbai to interact with local businessmen and attend a seminar organised by the All-India Association of Industries (AIAI) at the World Trade Centre.

The delegation comprised Piotr Wojsik of Zakead Remontowy Instalacji Przemyslowych, Wojciech Pyzynski of Polskie Pierze I Puch Sp. z o. o., Zenon Lagan of Zakead Remontowy Instalacji Przemyslowych, Ryszard Turzanski of Mineral Ltd Trade & Business Development and Kazimierz Izdebski of KABI.

Of particular interest to the fnb sector is the Industrial Installations Renovation Company from Poland (PIKO) which has been designing, manufacturing and assembling acid-resistant industrial equipment and devices since 1989. The company also carries out modernising and repair works and offers services in the food industry especially in fruit-and-vegetable processing, water and beverages manufacturing and spirit industry.

The company manufactures various devices including evaporators for fruit concentrate production, pressure tanks; storage and technology tanks; calibrating tanks; mixers, jacket pipe heat exchangers; and energy and technology pipelines. PIKO offers manufacturing and repairing services both at their factory which is located near Kielce and at their customers' building sites.

The new Indo-Polish agreement on economic cooperation will lead to setting up of a revamped Joint Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation. The first meeting of this Commission is expected to take place in the second half of this year during the visit of the Polish Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak to India.

There has been an increasing presence of Indian investors in Poland in fields as diverse as pharmaceuticals, food processing and health services. Other areas where Indian companies could cooperate with their Polish counterparts include the agricultural and food processing industries, " the Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller had said during his 2003 visit , the first by a Polish Prime Minister to India after Poland's transition to a multi-party state.

More recently, Mr. Rafal Dutkiewicz, President of the City of Wroclaw, Republic of Poland and Mr. Pawel Panczyj, Director for Investments, City of Wroclaw, were in Mumbai at the invitation of the Indo Polish Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IPCCI) and the Consulate General of Poland. Wroclaw is the fourth biggest city in Poland well developed in the sectors of pharma, education, tourism, logistics and financial services and both Mr Dutkiewicz and Mr Panczyj invited Indian businessmen to attend the 11th International Business Development Forum FUTURALLIA 2006 for promoting Small & Medium Enterprises being held in Wroclaw, Poland from May 31 to June 2, 2006.

More than 1,000 leaders of the SME sector from 40 countries and regions of the world will participate according to Mr. Panczyj. Mr. Vijay Kalantri, President, Indo Polish Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IPCCI) said the IPCCI would definitely participate in the Conference on SMEs and invited members to be a part of the delegation.