
At the end of April this year, Dr. Witold Choiński resigned from the position of president of the management board of the Polish Meat Association. His decision was the result of winning the competition for a member of the management board of Krajowa Grupa Spożywcza and being appointed to the management board by the Supervisory Board of KGS. He officially took up his new position on May 15 this year.
– I left the Association, but not the food industry. My heart will always be close to the meat industry, which I was a part of for many years. For twenty-five years I managed the largest Polish industry organization. During this time, we wrote and registered the Polish pork quality system PQS, recognized by the Minister of Agriculture in 2009 as a national quality system. We have registered new products with the European Commission as Guaranteed Traditional Specialties: kabanos sausages, juniper sausage, and hunting sausage. We were the originator and initiator of joint industry exhibitions at foreign and domestic fairs as well as industry missions to various countries around the world. We sought and organized numerous inspections by inspectors from various countries in the world in order to open markets to meat from Poland, he said.
Dr. Choiński emphasized that as president of the Association, together with representatives of other industry organizations, he created strategic foundations for individual sectors.
– Together with other organizations, we have developed strategies for pork and beef. I also devoted no less time to the poultry industry, many companies of which are members of the Association. It was a really good time, said the former president.
Plans of the new president of ZPM
After Dr. Witold Choiński resigned, the management board chose Jacek Strzelecki, an expert on the Chinese agri-food market and an expert of the Polish Meat Association, a person well-known in the meat industry and, more broadly, in agriculture, as the managing director of the Association. He took up this position on May 15. On June 27, the General Meeting of Members of the Polish Meat Association elected him president of the Association's management board.
– The change took place at a special moment, because the Polish Meat Association is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Therefore, becoming the head of the largest industry organization in Poland is an honor. The union has been and is a leader and initiator of changes on the market and I assure you that it will continue to be so. I will cooperate with anyone who wishes well for the industry. I won't be afraid to talk to her opponents either. I also know how much work must be put into disclosing facts about meat and the industry. This will definitely be my priority. Moreover, my work will also focus on using synergies, because there are niches in and around the industry, the skillful combination of which will bring measurable results – said Jacek Strzelecki, new president of the Polish Meat Association.
The sector faces many challenges
Strzelecki emphasized that agriculture and agri-food processing, including meat, should be viewed as agribusiness.
– Even though Polish agriculture has made civilizational progress since joining the European Union, the model of agriculture from historical descriptions is still quite common in public consciousness. Meanwhile, it is a modern business, and quite often these are large enterprises that provide employment to hundreds of thousands of people. Their specificity is that they do not produce chips or cars, but food for all residents in Poland, as well as for export. The stronger our agribusiness, i.e. agriculture and processing, is in terms of market strength, the stronger Poland's global position will also be, and therefore, first of all, agribusiness. This is how modern agricultural economies function, said Strzelecki.
He added that individual meat sectors face different challenges and common goals.
– Our strategic agricultural and processing sector – pork – requires different activities than poultry or beef, but all three meats define and characterize the Polish meat industry. A common problem is legal barriers to investment. Moreover, global and regional market conditions, such as those related to Ukraine, pose challenges to the Polish meat industry, which have already established and – importantly – will establish the principles of operation of the industry for at least the medium-term period, i.e. 10-12 years. There is really no shortage of work, said Jacek Strzelecki, president of the management board of the Polish Meat Association.