On October 16, 2024 in Warsaw, a seminar was held by the Polish Biomethane Association and the Polish Association of Agricultural Biogas Producers, entitled. , “Maintaining the competitiveness of Polish agriculture and agri-food processing in the context of carbon footprint labeling of products”. The lecturers included scientists from the Universities of Life Sciences from Poznan and Lublin, as well as SGGW:

Prof. Adam Cieślak, D.Sc. (Poznan)
prof. dr. hab. inz. Jacek Dach (Poznan)
Prof. Dr. Inż. Małgorzata Ziarno, Prof. SGGW
Andrzej Łozicki, Ph.D., Prof. SGGW
Alina Juśko, D.Sc., Prof. UP in Lublin

Practitioners in the biogas and biomethane sector - Sylwia Koch-Kopyszko and Marek Pituła - also spoke, as well as special guests - Delfina Rogowska, Ph.D., author and manager of the KZR INiG System - a certification system for sustainable production of biofuels and bioliquids and biomass fuels, and Andrzej Wrębiak, Ph.D., from the Business Advisory Center of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce.

The seminar was attended by about 50 people, primarily agricultural producers and processors in the agri-food sector and including representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, KOWR and NSZZ RI , “Solidarność”.

The seminar confirmed the theses of the initial meeting about the importance of Poland's agri-food exports for our economy and the opportunities for Polish producers to take advantage of the inevitable introduction of the so-called “Carbon Footprint” food labeling system to increase the competitiveness of our products on foreign markets.

Having a pretty good starting position with a relatively low carbon footprint in relation to most Western European producers, after activating some simple reserves resulting from the development of the still neglected biogas and biomethane sector, we can achieve results at the level of world leaders, thus increasing our competitive position.

Of particular interest was a speech by one of the seminar participants, representatives of dairy processors, who described the system already in place at their dairy plants for analyzing the carbon footprint of farms, including a system of rewarding a higher purchase price for milk from participants in this system.The seminar ended with a panel discussion, during which the most important aspects of the meeting were summarized.

In the second part of the meeting there was a presentation of the program for the construction of on-farm biogas plants with the working name “6x9”, involving the construction of biogas plants producing electricity and heat in cogeneration with a capacity of 49 kW to 999 kW, and a practical presentation on the construction of agricultural biogas plants.

This is a joint venture of the Polish Biomethane Association and the RI Solidarity Trade Union, which aims to build low-cost and easy-to-operate installations for farmers using primarily substrates generated on their farms.

Also presented was the concept of the construction of larger biomethane installations by agricultural cooperatives, in which several farmers - biogas producers unite their forces in the production of biomethane at one site by the cooperative of which they are members.

The media patronage of the event was provided by “Teraz Środowisko” and Ms. Katarzyna Zamorowska was the person conducting our meeting.

07 November 2024