PRODUCTION POTENTIAL OF THE VEGETABLE SECTOR IN POLAND AND SELECTED EU COUNTRIES

The aim of the research was to assess the production potential of the vegetable sector, as a factor of competitiveness, in Poland and selected EU countries. The evaluation of vegetable production was based on a comparative analysis of the level and changes in land area devoted to crops, yields, the number of farms and the average area of crops on the farm, the species structure of crops, the level of basic vegetable yields, and the resources of the factors of vegetable farm production from the FADN system. The research has shown that Poland’s high and growing position in vegetable production results mainly from the high acreage of crops, their partially complementary structure, and above all from relatively low labour costs compared to other surveyed EU countries. On the other hand, the improvement of effectiveness is not supported by the large fragmentation of Polish farms, although an increase in the average area of cultivation per farm was observed in the examined period. The research shows that in most of the analysed countries there was still a large fragmentation of vegetable farms. The analysis of vegetable farm inputs (on the basis of FADN data) in selected countries also shows that in the analysed period, a decrease in production factor resources was observed in Poland, Italy and France.