Agricultural Outlook for Central and Eastern Europe

If you are planning to invest in Central and Eastern Europe you should know that it is an excellent choice for your business.

When many emerging and developed markets face strained economic and political developments, it seems that the core CEE looks comparatively much better. As the McKinsey & Company states “since the transition to a market economy almost three decades ago, CEE has enjoyed a golden age of growth. The ten CEE countries examined in this report—Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia — recorded on average a 114 percent increase in GDP per capita between 1996 and 2017, compared with an increase of just 27 percent in the European Union’s “Big Five” economies: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.1 The CEE region has become one of the most attractive places to invest in globally. This has enabled CEE countries to partially close the economic gap with Western Europe and their populations to enjoy a significant rise in living standards.” What’s interesting, with a 4.2% GDP growth in 2019, Poland is the country that ranks as the second fastest-growing economy in the EU, according to the European Commission. As the Deloitte report confirms (Investing in central Europe) Poland is also one of the best performing transition markets in the world!

Why is it worth to invest in Central Eastern Europe?

According to Deloitte report “the CEE region within the EU offers relatively low labor costs, a favorable tax environment, and availability of tax incentives and since spring 2013 solid GDP growth trends across most of the economic sectors”. When the Eurozone grows by an extra 1%, then the CEE region grows by an extra 1.3%, which makes it very attractive for investing!

Global milk production market development forecast

As the Rabobank report confirms (Dairy Quarterly Q2 2019) milk production in Europe “posted year-on-year growth in March, which is expected to continue through into 2020”. As for China, consumer dairy demand remained resilient in 2019 and that trend should continue into 2020. What’s significant, milk production growth has been revised higher in this country. Situation on global milk production market will be discussed during Vth National Dairy Farm Day (15.05.2020, Top Farms Głubczyce, POLAND).

Dairy production market overview for CEE

According to EU agricultural markets short-term outlook – Spring 2019 report “favourable rains improved grass productivity in the main producing regions. The relatively low feed prices allowed farmers to use more compound feed, thus partially compensating for the lack of forage in winter. These two elements contributed to stable milk deliveries in the first quarter of 2019 (more than anticipated)”. What’s also estimated in the report – milk production will increase in Poland, Denmark, Ireland and the UK. In Germany and France however production is expected to remain stable.