Products from Poland and other Slavic countries that would you suggest to global market ?

This thread should have bright future.

i suggest that we here present product with its name and producer, image of product (package) and approximate price of product.

95% of Polish GDP is being produced by FOREIGN means of production (although I'm not sure about exact figures here). Even Polish vodka companies were taken over by foreign businesses !! So except for agricultural products, you will not find too many Polish goods. before 1989 Poland did have a large manufacturing base, but not any longer. In early 90s US "Advisers" came to Poland and told the Polish govt to privatise their industry and banks. For som e bribes, Polish politicians did what they were told to do and sold 99% of the Polish assets to foreign companies. end of the story.

will the new Polish govt re build Poland? maybe..they certainly have good intentions..but we shall see in 5-10 years. it would be in fact good also for the citizens of western european countries, because they would get good products for low prices like cars, engines, helicopters, clothing, groceries, bikes, etc.

For an attorney, you're remarkably ignorant as to history. 99% of assets weren't sold, and many of the existing production facilities date from after 1989.

Please focus on the topic only and restrain from making remarks toward another member of this forum


Wow. I mean, just wow.

Do you know the kind of investment needed to produce a viable, mass produced car? What about aeroplane engines? These things are highly specialised and produced by a handful of companies - Poland doesn't have the money to invest in the huge amount of R&D needed to produce a viable product in such fields.

I'll recommend the all new Volkswagen Crafter van which will be produced in a completely new factory near Poznan from late 2016 onwards, pricing varies according to model, equipment and market.

We don't know and can only hope. What we do know that there are many forces (EU, Western corporations and their Polish lobbyists) at work who want Poland to remain a raw materials and farm produce exporter as well as a cheap manpower country to site foreign assembly plants in. And there are anti-Polish on PF who say things like "Polish cars were crappy" so Poland shouldn't try to build them. Hopefully Dep. PM Morawiecki will finally start moving Poland in the direction of creating a viable industrial base focusing on indigenous Polish designs, recognisable Polish brands, manufacturing and marketing.

Ok, I would start with this first:

"The team from Lodz University of Technology in Poland have developed a technology of obtaining graphene sheets using liquid metal matrix and high-carbon gases, by improving the original, previously patented method. Polish scientists have also designed and commissioned a furnace for mass production of graphene. Their product is called HSMG - High Strength Metallic Graphene".


Not true, in fact 99% of the Polish banks were sold for 2-3% of their market value, basically for peanuts, (between 1989-1995) and Polish high-quality manufacturing lines were at that time either sold, privatized, taken over by foreign coroporations, and then sold or destroyed by US and european corporations with the aim of destroying local Polish competition in all major sectors of the economy ( a fact very well hidden from the eyes of the local Polish population).

Proof: PKO BP is the only major Polish bank operating currently in Poland (all the other banks are foreign , therefore they WILL NOT fund Polish investments in Poland which might be a competition to European companies).

Amen, Brother!

Another Polish product to mention: Idea Bank, the majority shareholder of which is a certain Leszek Czarnecki.

Always easy to spot a PiS supporter, because they blindly spout such things as facts without actually providing any evidence.

Which high-quality manufacturing lines? Most Polish businesses were hopeless once the market opened up to Western competition - the products were simply not desirable for CEE buyers (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary) and other markets simply didn't have the money to buy (Romania, Bulgaria, ex-Yugoslavia, ex-USSR) - and the technology was way behind Western technology at that point. The Western companies came in and invested heavily in production facilities, hence why some ex-state owned facilities are now successful while others (that didn't have Western cash injections) have failed miserably.

A simple knowledge of COMECON economics will tell you that when the whole thing collapsed, most Polish industry collapsed too because they simply had no customers anymore. These businesses were only viable because they had guaranteed customers - which was all backed with the petroruble.

Which banks were allegedly sold for 2-3% of market value? For kicks, let's talk about the only two banks privatised between 1989-1995, shall we?

Wielkopolski Bank Kredytowy - 30% sold to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 27% sold at an IPO, 20% to employees and the State kept the remaining

Bank Sląśki - 26% sold to ING, 31% sold to the public through an IPO, 10% to employees and the State kept the remaining shares.

No other banks were privatised between 1989-1995 as you claim. In fact, not even half the shares were sold to foreign owners during that time.

very good example. This kind of vehicles proved to be very interesting to market. If prices are competitive then product definitely have bright future

Pierogi.

The Pierogis made by Zapiececki could easily go toe to toe with any cuisine in the world. They are delicious, and affordable.

Also polish Zubrowka with Apple juice could be for Poland what Caipirinha is for Brazil or Marguerita is for Mexico, if marketed well.

so this you suggest. you suggest mixing of vodka with apples juice? sound interesting

Those trying to show how many indigenous Polish enterprises are successful really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to eventually come up with this odd millionaire, some stray Polish company or even a foreign assembly plant (eg VW) employing Poles. But answer this simple query: HOW MANY POLISH PRODUCTS AND BRANDS RING A BELL TO THE PEOPLE OF GLASGOW, NANCY, BOSTON, NAPLES, WINNIPEG, BOGOTA, SEOUL or ANKARA?

Plenty of them.

Polish clothing in particular is very fashionable - there are plenty of successful boutique designers that sell few and sell expensive, and there are some youth labels that are worn by pop culture figures. Don't make the mistake of assuming that just because they aren't cheap and cheerful like H&M and Zara, they aren't popular.

Poland is actually developing quite the reputation internationally for high quality, expensive products. I can't think of any downmarket Polish product except Reserved and fellow brands - it's all high end stuff. Vistula, Wolczanka - all getting a decent reputation internationally for doing decent clothes.

Likewise with yachts - Poland is doing ridiculously well when it comes to producing them.

Perhaps these products aren't on everyone's lips, but that's no bad thing. I'd rather Poland was known for high quality products than cheap mass produced rubbish.

Go to any supermarket in Glasgow and there will be a section dedicated to Polish products.


If you mean the Boston in the UK, there will be sections dedicated to Polish products in every supermarket. If you mean the one in your country, you should blame your fellow Americans for being ignorant of Polish products.


Perhaps Polish companies would be more successful if the government wasn't so spectacularly incompetent? It's hard to attract investors when nobody knows what brilliant idea the followers of the Dear Leader Chairman Kaczynski are going to have next.

You have nailed it !


I'm sorry to disappoint you, but in /2013/2014 the Zubrowka brand (just like soplica, bols, absolwent) were bought by the Russian company called Russian Standard.

All the cash goes to Russia now..

Nice try though !

Wrong yet again!
By the way, when are you going to name the Polish banks you claim "were sold for 2-3% of their market value, basically for peanuts, (between 1989-1995)"?

Let's hope so ! in fact, this is something which can realistically happen in the next 5-10 years (unless the big royal American/jewish family with HQ in Pocantico Hills decides to kick out the new Polish govt). but even then, they may be unsuccessful...For some reason, Poland has been under special divine protection from God and Virgin Mary for almost 400 years now.

That's exactly the problem. No-one is going to invest in creating solid Polish brands when the government is openly hostile to private business. Why bother, when you can take your capital and create a business somewhere far more friendly? It simply doesn't make sense for any investor, Polish or otherwise.

The problem Morawiecki is going to have is that PiS focus on large, heavy industries. They're not going to provide meaningful support for medium sized companies that want to buy a warehouse and get on with production.


I'm waiting too. It can't be so difficult, surely.

Privatisation of Polish banks (and other industries) between 1989-2015 is a long story of corruption, bribery and ouright theft (that even the native Polish population is not fully aware of!! but they will suffer the results of it in the next 20-25 years)

1. 80% of the Polish banks were sold to hostle foreign companies/banks for about 25 billion Polish zlotys (for the price of just 1 bank)

2. BPH and Pekao SA were sold for about 5-6 billion zlotys (each of these banks has currently assets of about 115 billion PLN or more)

3. bank Handlowy, Big bank Gdanski, Polski Bank Rozwoju i Polski Bank inwestycyjny were also sold.

4. almost 50% of shares of PKO BP were sold for about 7 billion PLN (basically for peanuts)

If you don't have your own banks, your nation will cease to prosper (or even exist).

prof. Milton Friedman many times warned Polish politicians agains selling their assets and companies to hostile foreign corporations...

No one should be surprised if some day both Merkel (for her Eurocidal migrant/refugee muck-up) and Balcerowicz (for destroying Poland's industrial base) have to face the Hague Tribunal or some other international authority judging political crimes.

so, according to very modest assessment, Polish citizens lost about 200 billion zlotys as a result of this scam called "privatisation of banks"

Thats about 80% of Polands GDP at the time. I never heard of the concept of communist countries with successful banks, especially bankrupt countries with hyper inflation.

Impossible, springs to mind.

Don't try and change the topic - you claimed 1989-1995, not 1989-2015.


Given that Pekao has expanded massively since 1999 (it used to have the monopoly on foreign transactions, which was then taken away in the 90's and it was a shell of its former self, combined with some small retail operations) - basic economics should tell you that it's obvious why it's worth much more now. Unicredit invested a considerable amount into the bank, and as a foreign-owned bank, it was often the first choice for foreign commercial clients as it knew what it was doing. Don't try and make out as if it was an incredibly wealthy bank that was privatised for peanuts - it's simply not true.

I've found the figures for 1999. Pekao SA turned over about 5.3 billion złoty that year and made a profit of around 136 million. So - if your figure of 5-6 billion złoty is right, then the government made a decent deal there. Furthermore, shares were on sale then for 49zł. These days, they're worth about 142zł. It's not exactly a huge increase compared to the rise in value of other assets.

I'm not familiar with BPH so I won't comment there.


Anyone that's familiar with Polish banking history knows that PKO BP was in a terrible mess in the 1990's. If it wasn't for the fact that it was too big to fall, it would've fallen - it's only in the last 10 years that it really started to become the dominant retail bank. One huge problem that PKO BP had (and possibly still has, I'm not sure) is that they had a ridiculous amount of bad loans.


As they should have been. It was vital to create some genuine competition in the banking market and allow privatised banks to consolidate with other privately owned banks. We're seeing the end game now, but for a long time, Poland had far, far too many banks. Even today, the problems caused by small banks (such as with the blatantly corrupt SKOKi) can really hurt the government financially.


Your assessment is based on those banks hypothetically performing as well as they have under state ownership. It's nonsense.


As far as I know, there weren't many successful banks in Poland in the 1990's. WBK and Bank Sląśki come to mind, but most of them were just small regional banks.

And you aim to keep it that way. Banks control a country's economy and you apparently want it remote-controlled by foreigners. One of your mates calls Polish cars "crappy" and praises VW's assembly operation. He wants to keep Poland out of the motorcar business. You too claim cars, helicopters and such are too complicateda and costly for Poles to manufacture so let foreigners build them adn sell them to Poles. Keep Poladn down, let it remain a pool of cheap manpower for foreign assembly works. If Poles have not been successful in some field they should just give up and turn to foreign iinterests to do the job.

... why? We need successful banks so that they have money to lend to others. That's how modern economies work - when the banks stop lending, everyone is in trouble. Poland has enough trouble with the SKOKi being in a financial mess - I can't imagine the horror if more banks were in financial trouble.


That's because VW have decades of cutting edge experience, whereas Poland has next to nothing in that field. Encouraging the development of a Polish supercar makes perfect sense, however - you don't need a perfected assembly operation, but you need a lot of highly talented employees.


That's because they are. Where do you think the money is coming from to fund such operations? You're trying to use Gierek-era economics here, which caused Poland to be in the deep brown stuff for what, 2 decades? It makes far more sense for Poland to produce luxury goods that are actually easier to produce, because you don't need to fight against long established international companies with very deep pockets.

Trying to establish big heavy Polish industries is what was tried in the 1970's and it failed miserably. We don't need to go there again.

It is not only "vodka", it is Zubrowka, which have a distinct flavour of vodka (the yellow version, not the white one).

alright. Now, is it Polish or Russia patent? Then, no matter which is patent, important thing is that is Zubrowka produced in Poland and that goes with label `Product of Poland`. Same as one can produce foreign vehicles in Poland, one can produce anything else.


still, if there are distilleries in Poland that produce Zubrowka in Poland, its Polish product.


yes, money from patent but, if its product of Poland, money from vat taxes stays in Poland (if Polish citizen is owner of distillery than also profit from ownership stays in Poland). For example, there are Fiat factories in Serbia. Fiat is Italian brand but, everything produced in Serbia is `Product of Serbia`. Vat taxes and some other taxes stays in Serbia. Italians profit as owners of business/factory and as owners of patent.


you trust in Hague tribunal? you think they would judge same to German, USA and Polish citizens?

you would learn that is justice quite selective. Not that blind

Simply repeating that particular claim won't make it true. The search engine shows that the person who has used the word "crappy" most this year is you. ?phrase=crappy And looking back as far as October 2013 nobody at all has used the word to describe Polish cars.


Care to quote anybody doing that? Or is that just another claim you've made up?


The very finest AC Cobra style are made with aluminum bodyshells produced in Mielec by craftsmen who learned their trade building MiGs.

Exactly. This is what Poland should be encouraging - there's a lot of people here with a lot of talent, and they would be wasted/unwilling to work in large industrial facilities.

Problem is, such companies can only flourish if they're supported financially (through export credits, for example) while being left to get on with it. PiS could never entertain such a business model, because there wouldn't be highly paid jobs for their supporters there.