Poland has the second most “patriotic” shoppers among the European Union’s ten largest economies, according to a new consumer report. Only the Spanish are more likely to choose local products.
The Buy Locally Index for 2020, published by Grant Thornton, an accounting firm, looks at imports as a share of consumption and also accounts for how easy it is to buy local. The firm notes that such “consumer patriotism” has environmental benefits – by reducing transport distances – and also boosts the local economy.
Tak kupujemy lokalnie na tle 10 największych gospodarek w UE. Wg naszego Buy Locally Index, polscy konsumenci są jednymi z najbardziej skłonnych do patriotyzmu konsumenckiego.
Jak liczymy BLI? Jakie są tendencje? Zapraszamy do raportu: https://t.co/3SvjAjSSUn pic.twitter.com/Oo7FO9eruy
— Grant Thornton Polska (@GrantThorntonPL) September 22, 2021
“Our index…checks how determined local communities are to choose local products,” said Tomasz Wróblewski, a managing partner at Grant Thornton. “From this perspective, Polish consumers look great.”
Poland scored 70.1 points in the index, which was the second-highest score among ten large European economies, after Spain, whose score was indexed at 100.
Other high-scoring countries include the Netherlands (60.7), France (60.6) and Italy (59.5). At the other end of the scale were Austria (41.9) and Germany (39).
Poland’s government has encouraged consumers to pay attention to the origins of their purchases and opt for local produce. In 2019 it launched a campaign encouraging people to use the barcode prefix – which indicates the origin of products – as a guide.
Last year, the agricultural ministry published a list of firms that are importing milk products into Poland, “thus limiting sales from Polish farmers”.
According to Grant Thornton, in 2020 Poland’s imports as a share of consumption stood at 18.9%. This figure has increased by two thirds in the past decade. It is also higher than that for other, less “patriotic” countries, including Germany (14.2%) and France (12.7%).
However, the self-sufficiency (or “complexity”) score for Poland’s economy was lower than that of other countries, at 1.1 points compared with Germany’s 2.09.
A lower score means that it is harder to buy local products, hence home-grown consumption requires more effort and is thus interpreted as a higher show of “patriotism” in the index. As a result, Poland’s composite index was higher than that in Germany and France.
The report only looked at the 10 largest EU economies because, according to its authors, smaller ones did not have a large enough domestic production base for a meaningful comparison.
Main image credit: Krystian Maj / KPRM (under public domain)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
