Competitiveness of the Polish Fruit Farms

The paper presents competitiveness and efficiency of the Polish fruit farms against similar farms from selected European Union countries. The analysis covered farms specialising in fruit trees and bushes covered by FADN monitoring in 2007-2009 and 2011-2013. Competitiveness of the researched fruit farms was determined by competitiveness index calculated as a ratio of farm income to costs of using own factors of production: land, labour and capital (as in: W. Kleinhanss). Whereas effectiveness was described by the index of productivity of land, assets and labour. Competitive abilities were demonstrated by Polish fruit farms with economic size of EUR 25-50 thousand of SO and EUR 50-100 thousand of SO and area of 17.70 ha of UAA and 38.80 ha of UAA, respectively. These abilities were also demonstrated by Hungarian farms of the clases of EUR 50-500 thousand of SO, Romanian – EUR 100-500 thousand of SO, German – EUR 50-500 thousand of SO, French – EUR 25-50 thousand of SO, Italian – EUR 500 thousand of SO and more, and Spanish – EUR 100-500 thousand of SO. Area of competitive fruit farms from Western European countries was lower than that of the Polish farms in corresponding economic size classes