POLAND
Bogaczewo – Lake fisheries and more
Diversification at its best ‘ Zakład Rybacki Bogaczewo, or Bogaczewo Fish Department in English, was establish in Bogaczewo between Warsaw and Gdansk next to Lake Narie in 1952. It has made Bogaczewo synonymous with diversification in inland fisheries.
M
anaging Director Bogusław Kelles-Krauz and his wife moved here as newlyweds, straight after graduation. He has been director for more than 20 years and proudly shows off his accomplishments. The farm is located on 4,700 ha, of which 4,300 are lakes. The rest consists mostly of grassland, forest, and meadow. The company was initially state owned but was privatised in 1994, when the former employees established a joint-venture cooperative that won the tender in the privatisation process.
Activities galore The company started out with simple lake fisheries but subsequently began breeding, catching, selling, and processing. The company owns a trout farm and five carp centres covering more than 220 hectares. Carp centres are farms with hatcheries, where they breed carp for their own production as well as for sale to other fish farms. As the company grew, it gradually added facilities for storage, refrigeration, freezing, smoking, processing, and packaging. The processing is basic and involves cleaning, descaling, and filleting. Ninety-nine per cent of their products are made with fish from their own catches, and all waste products are sold to a fish-feed producer. The place also features two guesthouses that can be rented, overlooking the lake. 32
Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2013
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Lake Narie, one of the lakes owned by Bogaczewo. The company has a total of 4,300 ha of lakes.
Most of the bookings are made between May and August, but it is possible to rent them yearround. “We own two small shops where we sell a large selection of our products to the locals and to other local shops, like in the nearby city of Olsztyn”, says Kelles-Krauz. “We also have an agreement with
the LeClerc supermarket chain, which sells our whole line of products in stores throughout Poland”. “And then there’s our restaurant, which operates during an extended summer season from April to October, where we serve dishes made with our freshly caught fish. It is very popular with both locals and tourists,”
says Kelles-Krauz. “People like to come out to eat good quality close to where the fish are caught. Fish is simply better that way”. Bogaczewo does not sell products abroad because there is still plenty of opportunity in Poland. The types of products sold vary depending on the season. For
Managing Director Bogusław Kelles-Krauz www.eurofishmagazine.com
05/12/13 1:02 PM