Competitiveness of the Polish dairy farms at the background of farms from selected European Union countries

The paper presents the level of competitiveness of the Polish dairy farms at the background of farms from the selected European Union countries. The selection was not random. The research covered farms from the following countries: Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. Hungary, Lithuania and Austria were selected because of similar farm size and structure as well as similar production intensity level. Whereas Germany and France – as the largest milk producers, while Denmark and the Netherlands – as countries with the highest level of milk production intensity. Researched materials were sourced from data on farms covered by European FADN monitoring between 2013 and 2015. Competitiveness of farms was determined by the ratio of farm income to costs of use of own factors of production. Competitive ability was shown by Polish medium large and large farms with economic size of, respectively, EUR 50-100 thousand SO and EUR 100-500 thousand SO , using, accordingly, 39.1 and 81.3 ha of UAA and maintaining: 31 and 65 cows. Competitive ability was shown by Hungarian and Lithuanian farms from similar economic size classes and very large Hungarian and German farms.