Poland is set to significantly boost its covered tomato production with three major projects announced by Dutch glasshouse specialists Olsthoorn and Kubo, which between them will add more than 100,000m2 of greenhouse acreage.
The Tomczyk project involves 70,000m2 of greenhouses, while the Rechnia and Kociszweski projects will add another 19,000m2 and 17,000m2 respectively, Kubo said. Since 1997, Olsthoorn and Kubo have collaborated on around 80 similar projects in eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary.
According to a report from Poland’s Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment (IAFE), Poland’s greenhouse vegetable production grew by 2 per cent in 2014, reaching 1m tonnes. Tomato production increased by 1.5 per cent to 570,000 tonnes; cucumbers rose by 2 per cent to 260,000 tonnes and other vegetables increased by 3 per cent to 170,000 tonnes.
Vegetables grown in greenhouses account for around 19 per cent of Poland’s total vegetable output.
