Meeting with Mr. Levin Flake, Agricultural Counselor of the Office of Agricultural Affairs of the U.S. Embassy

On Tuesday, September 24th, 2024, the AmCham Agri, Food & FMCG Committee organized a meeting with Levin Flake, Agricultural Counselor from the Office of Agricultural Affairs of the US Embassy in Warsaw.

We have discussed the current priorities of the office and the biggest issues facing agriculture nowadays. We have started the meeting with the optimistic remark from our speaker that US-Poland agricultural relationships are going strong. Poland’s total 2023 imports of food, agricultural, and related products were valued at over $39 billion, with U.S. imports accounting for a record high of $733 million. Following the discussion, there was the question of the prospects for American and European agricultural cooperation. The U.S. and the EU, both major agri-food producers and exporters on the global stage seem to have the same agricultural goals but different tools to achieve them. The importance of sustainable agriculture cannot be understated so we have discussed how sustainable and organic agricultural production, the potential contribution of bioenergy, and international cooperation may be a remedy for some problems affecting agriculture nowadays. Smart farming is an important aspect of sustainable agriculture – discovering more effective farm methods will increase production quantity and minimize the environmental impact. With almost 10 billion people soon we need to know how to produce more with less to simply feed people. Talking about the agricultural and food value chain, our participants underlined that the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the global food supply chains. It has served as a lesson for businesses and governments. All the supply chain elements needed to be carefully reviewed to adjust to the new attitudes. As our participants mentioned we had to make sure that there is always “Plan B” and our supply chain is diversified. Thank you to our speaker, and Łukasz Dominiak Łukasz Dominiak and Piotr Bonislawski for moderating the discussion. Watch out for the next meeting of the Agri, Food & FMCG Committeehttps://amcham.pl/events/meeting-with-mr-levin-flake-agricultural-counselor-of-the-office-of-agricultural-affairs-of-the-u-s-embassy-21/?preview=true!