After Poland's accession to the EU, it turned out that the threats are smaller than forecasted and our food producers efficiently take advantage of the opportunities resulting from the opening of a large and wealthy European food market. Polish food economy is well-prepared to operate within the Common European Market. Mutual full opening of markets was not a hindrance to the development of the Polish food economy; instead it became a strong impulse for its growth. Within the 5 years of our EU membership the export of agri-food products increased from EUR 4.0 billion to EUR 11.3 billion (2.8 times) whereas the import increased from EUR 3.6 billion to EUR 9.8 billion (also 2.8 times) and the surplus increased 3.3 times from EUR 0.4 billion to EUR 1.5 billion. Despite the observed positive transformations, efficient competition with the other Community States is hampered by a relatively low concentration level of agricultural production and food processing, low labour efficiency in food industry and not very active marketing and promotion of Polish agri-food products. The creation of long-lasting competition advantages requires the formation of a highly productive, market-oriented segment of farms in Poland.