Can you give us an overview of HARS Foods?

The company's inception dates back to 1995 when my father, Lucian, founded it. Initially, we focused on sourcing raw materials for farmers and distributing them to various markets. We started with small-scale domestic deliveries and gradually expanded our reach beyond Poland, first into Europe and later to other continents. While Poland is a substantial market for bean consumption, particularly large white kidney beans, or butter beans, our primary export markets are in Europe, including Spain, Italy and the Balkan States. We also serve customers in Africa and Asia. In the Americas, we primarily source beans rather than export.

What has been the company’s focus in Poland? 

In Poland, the company specializes in large white kidney beans, a unique and prominent market for us. Poland is the biggest producer in the world of this kind of bean - the second, Hunan province in China, harvests half the quantities we do. This variety is cultivated with well-established techniques, and our Polish farmers are skilled at producing high-quality crops at competitive prices. While we've explored diversifying into other bean varieties like alubias and red kidney beans, the efficiency of growing these beans in Poland hasn't proven financially viable, leading us to maintain our focus on large white kidney beans. It’s difficult for Polish farmers to compete in alubias with Argentina and Egyptian. 

Can you give us a picture of production and export figures?

Precise figures are challenging to determine due to the involvement of multiple exporters in Poland and a lack of comprehensive statistics. Our production has steadily increased over the years, with modernization and technology adoption playing a key role in enhancing our efficiency. I’ve been in the industry for 26 years and I remember when farmers were growing three or four hectares and it was all by hand. Then, Poland's annual bean harvests were limited to between 10,000 and 20,000 tonnes, but we now have an average harvest of 50,000 to 60,000 tons in a good year. This growth has allowed us to maintain price stability and compete effectively on the global stage.

Poland and other countries have been part of the Grain Corridor for moving Ukrainian grain outside Europe. How has this impacted the export market? 

There are indeed new investments, for instance, new container terminals in the Western part of Poland but, as far as I know, they were made mostly for other products. When they’re completed, we’ll have more opportunities and fewer problems with containers and waiting times. Polish ports and terminals are growing year by year but it is still not enough. There’s been more of a direct impact on our business in terms of container availability and cargo movement. Prices for us are a little bit higher and sometimes we have to wait longer but it is not critical. 

With the new infrastructure, are you looking to diversify?

We had hoped to expand our red kidney bean production and increase exports but we have had very serious issues with the weather in previous years. We typically had mild summers with good soils, good rains, and warm autumns during harvest time but we’ve noticed that the climate has changed. For a few years in a row, we have had very rainy autumns that destroyed the crops and particularly affected red kidney beans. Farmers lost a lot of money and they will not risk it again. This year, for example, we had no red kidney bean crop. Maybe a few hundred hectares were planted but there was not even enough for local consumption and Poland is an importer of red kidney beans.

How is the crop this year?

This year we have had the first good crop, in terms of both quantity and quality, since 2019. Last year’s yields were around 1.2 MT per hectare and this year is 2.5; even with the planted area 10 per cent lower than last season, we have gained almost double compared to last year. 

When I talked with our customers at the beginning of the season, knowing that we were going to have a good crop, I told them that Poland would go along with the prices from other origins. We have to adapt to the world prices and Argentina and Egypt are number one in alubias, so we were looking at those. I thought that maybe in Poland it might go a little bit cheaper but alubias rose in price in August and September. Also, demand for Polish beans increased as a substitution for alubias in many markets - not top canners like Spain or Italy, but some other countries chose Polish beans.

What can we expect this year in terms of prices?

This good crop was a surprise for some Polish traders. We were not prepared to absorb the quantities in storage so we had some problems. The beans were not dry but sold at very cheap prices and a lot of customers were complaining about low offers from Poland in September and October. Now I think the market has stabilized, farmers are almost sold out completely and the ones who decided to keep some inventory and wait for better prices will be selling only when they feel that the price is fair or they need money. 

At the moment I’m in a position to say Polish large white kidney beans should adapt to the prices of alubias. My idea is to be a little bit cheaper than alubias to attract markets that have been lost for a few years because for many years a lot of them were closed to us. Last year, the price of alubias was slightly above 1,000 USD per tonne delivered to Europe and Polish prices were around 2,000 USD. Many markets stopped buying and this year we have a chance to recover and we are doing that. We’re exporting a lot of beans outside Europe.