Relationships between producers and processors in terms of fruit production and prices of fruits for processing in Poland

The aim of this paper is to present the relationships between the growers and the processors in the supply chain of raw material for processing in Poland and to study the dependence between the level of purchase prices for individual species of fruit for processing and the harvest of these fruits in Poland. The investigations cover the period of 2000–2017. The object of the research were the volume of production and the prices of selected species of the fruits for processing (apples, sour cherries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, currants and gooseberries). The volume of fruit production were determined based on the data of the Central Statistical Office. Purchase prices of fruits for processing were adopted based on data of the Department of Horticulture Economics IERiGŻ- -PIB. The dependence was studied by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Spearman’s R index. Based on the literature review, among the factors important in relationships between producers of agricultural raw materials and processors can be mentioned: price volatility of the fruits for processing, small production scale, requirement of stable supply, and the ability to impact the quality of the raw materials for processing. The fragmentation of fruit production in Poland makes the small scale of fruit production contributes to the poor (the underlying) fruit growers’ position in the supply chain of fruit for processing. Fruit producers must accept the terms of the sale and the price of fruits determined by fruit processing industry. The price for most (aside from the raspberries) species of fruit for processing in Poland were negative correlated with the amount of production while the negative sign shows that the increase in fruit harvest was accompanied by the decrease in purchase price of fruit for processing. The results suggest fruit growers the opportunity of impact on price of fruit for processing by controlling the volume of fruit harvest.