The Warsaw Voice magazine granted its annual award, the Chair of the Year for 2012, to Polish food which has proved a hit on European and global markets - last year Poland’s food exports exceeded EUR 16 billion and were three times higher than in 2004 when Poland joined the European Union.

During the award ceremony at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, on March 13, the Warsaw Voice’s editor-in-chief Andrzej Jonas handed out the award to Stanisław Kalemba, Minister of Agriculture. The ministry has for years been supporting the following scenario: the better Polish food the more willingly bought and consumed abroad.

Agriculture is a strong pillar of the Polish economy and Polish food should be promoted and get more publicity, Minister Kalemba said as he collected the award.

Poland recorded a surplus of EUR 3.3 billion in the trade of food in 2012—higher than in any other sector. Top Polish food exports include meat, milk, cereals, vegetables, fruit, juices, candy, alcohol, and a long list of other items. Europeans—and not only those from EU countries—have come to appreciate Polish produce.

For 23 years now, The Warsaw Voice has been granting its annual Chair of the Year award to distinguish people, institutions or even objects that have exerted the most important influence on the life of Poles over the course of a year.

The Chair of the Year statuette is the work of renown sculptor Piotr Gawron, a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The statuette portrays the chair of a film director who has just finished work. The uneven texture on the base of the statuette symbolizes the obstacles faced by the winner.

Previous laureates of The Warsaw Voice award include Lech Wałęsa, Leszek Balcerowicz, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Hanna Suchocka, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Roman Kluska, Jerzy Buzek, Bronisław Geremek, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Adam Małysz, Danuta Hübner, Jerzy Hausner, Marek Belka and Rafał Blechacz. In 2009, after two decades of democracy in Poland, two Chair of the Year statuettes were handed out: to Lech Wałęsa and Leszek Balcerowicz.

The Chair of the Year for 2009 went to Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski and the award for 2010 to then-Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad. The winner of the award for 2011 was Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Yesterday’s event was attended by several hundred guests, including businessmen, politicians, diplomats, academics and media professionals.