Mariusz Hamulczuk

Sugar prices in Poland and their determinants

The sugar market in the EU is among the most regulated food markets in the world. This regulation is based on production quotas and foreign trade regulations. At the same time, individual links of the marketing chain are characterised by highly varied degree of concentration, which – in the conditions of strong market protection – creates the potential for monopolistic practices and the so-called monopolistic margins. In this context, the paper aims at empirical assessment of changes in sugar prices in Poland and identification of their determinants. The study was based on monthly sugar prices in Poland, the EU and across the world in 2000-2014. Time series models were used to assess correctness. The conducted research indicates that sugar production and prices in Poland and in the EU are largely determined by the market regulation system, while the sugar market reform had little effect on increasing the interrelations between the EU prices and world prices. At the same time, the retail and selling prices are strongly interrelated and these interrelations can be non-linear.

Importance and territorial diversification of marketplace trade in Poland

Paper analyses the importance and the territorial diversification of marketplaces (open-air-markets) in Poland based on Eurostat and the Polish public statistical data. The study used methods of correlation, regression and principal components analysis. The results indicate that the surface of the sales surface of marketplaces in Poland per 1,000 residents varies greatly between regions. The level of analyzed variable is higher in regions with lower level of economic growth, higher inflation and higher unemployment rate. Marketplaces surface is also negatively associated with a number of large format retailers per 1,000 residents, population density and the degree of marketability of agricultural production.

FACTORS AFFECTING CHANGES IN PRICES AND FARMERS’ INCOMES ON THE POLISH PIG MARKET

The paper presents market-based mechanisms underlying changes in pig prices and pig meat producers’ income in Poland. The pig prices are determined by supply and demand equilibrium. Farmers are price takers and market price is a parameter which enables them to make economic calculation and verify their individual effectiveness. This paper comprises also an empirical analysis of the factors affecting pig prices developments in 1997-2012. The analysis based on VAR models indicates that pig prices in Poland are determined mostly by the situation on foreign markets. In the long term, only around 30% of pig prices’ vari-ation in Poland depends on national conditions. The Granger causality tests proved that changes in the prices of pork in the marketing chain occur according to a pattern typical of a competitive market – the direction of price signals comes from producer prices towards consumer prices. The farmers margins in pork meat marketing chain have not changed over the analysed period – they fluctuated cyclically and seasonally around the level of 37%. The collapse of pork production in Poland since 2008 has been caused mainly by structural reasons. Pig production in Poland is very fragmented in comparison with the other EU countries thus small economy of scale is reflected in farmers’ low incomes. High cost of production per unit leads to deterioration of the price relationships between foreign and do-mestic prices and lowers demand for domestic pork.