– Polish exporters are more and more active on foreign markets. This year importers keep up with them. Last year the value of Polish import and export was on a similar level and this year the trade exchange in both directions is growing. This proves that our economy has an increasingly global character and that Polish business is more open to the world. We owe this to entrepreneurs from many different sectors, also those very unique and unexpected ones – says Radosław Jarema, head of the Polish branch of Akcenta, a payment institution that manages exporters’ and importers’ currency transactions.
Everyone can sing (and play)
Experts from Akcenta notice that the general “music equipment” term also refers to unique objects that make sound such as jukeboxes or mechanical singing birds, as well as singing saws, decoys, whistles, horns and signalling brass instruments. Last year their import was worth almost 2.2 million PLN. The biggest amount of these products (considering the tonnage) came from China and Indonesia. We also spent a lot of money on music equipment from Canada, Sweden and Germany.
More and more health from abroad
An import hit in the last few years was avocado. We have to import it because Polish weather is not good enough to grow it. The growth in popularity of this very healthy fruit is very impressive though. According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland in 2015 the whole import of avocado was worth 84.7 million PLN, which was 57% more than in the previous year. It is also five times more than five years ago. In 2014 the Central Statistical Office of Poland recorded a growth in avocado import to Poland. In 2013 it was 69% and in 2014 – 55% YoY. Avocado, very exotic until recently and now commonly available even in smallest shops, is importuned mainly from Israel, South Africa and Spain. Peru, Chile and Kenya also provide us with large quantities of this fruit.
There are also many drugs and supplements (or their ingredients) that we import from other countries. One of the examples is vitamin A, which we can find in Polish carrots, but also as a product imported from Germany, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. Last year Polish companies imported almost 226,000 kg of vitamin A worth nearly 24.9 million PLN.
Import gives a new lease of life
The quality of health and life of Polish people that have a problem with their locomotor system is improved by an unusual imported product – prosthetic implants. Last year their import was worth as much as 174.8 million PLN. We buy prosthetic implants in those countries that specialise in latest medical solutions, such as Germany, United States and the Netherlands but if we want an implant from more exotic countries, we also have a lot to choose from. For example, last year they were brought from Malesia or Taiwan.
A/C also from abroad
Summer in Poland can be unbearably hot. A cool relief on a hot day provides air conditioning that is more and more visible in private houses. Those devices are usually imported from China and Germany but the list of our suppliers is quite long. It includes the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands and Thailand. Last year the import of air conditioners to Poland was worth almost 1.49 billion PLN (4% YoY).
All values are quoted in PLN. Source: Central Statistical Office of Poland
Photo © Anna Karahan