The role of cooperatives in ensuring food availability in Poland - as exemplified by dairy products

The article assesses the food security of dairy products in Poland in its most important dimension, i.e. food availability. Dairy cooperatives play a dominant role in milk processing in Poland. They constitute 62% of all dairies in the country, with a share in milk purchase of 72%. Therefore, a new approach in the above considerations is to take into account the role of cooperatives. The time scope of the work covers the period after the transformation of the economy, and detailed data on the assortment of the examined dairies in the years 2013 and 2017, due to access to comparable data from dairy reports. The research also used data from the Central Statistical Office and IERiGŻPIB. Since 1990, Poland has significantly increased its self-sufficiency in the production of milk and dairy products. The production potential of Polish agriculture and processing is sufficient to produce milk and dairy products ensuring an adequate level of nutrition for the population in the country. Despite the decrease in the number of dairy cooperatives, they are the dominant form in milk processing. Dairy cooperatives are present in every voivodeship. Most dairy cooperatives (over 62%) offer a wide range of dairy products (from five to eight types of products), but this is a significantly smaller share than a few years ago (74%). The specialization of cooperatives is growing and almost every third offers no more than four products. Most dairies offering the most popular dairy products, i.e. liquid milk, fresh cheeses, cream, butter and milk drinks are dairy cooperatives (from 71% to 83%). In the case of other products, their share is smaller (from 44% to 71%). In each province there are cooperative plants producing basic dairy products. Ensuring physical availability of dairy products, as well as permanent access to food in every region of the country is guaranteed by dairy cooperatives.