ROME – Krakow PVC window exporter Oknoplast and Trenitalia's Polish rail vehicle supplier Pesa were among the winners of the first Centaur awards for exports to Italy presented at the Polish Embassy this week.

  Italy remains one of the main export markets for Polish industry. In the process of European integration economic ties between Italy and Poland continue to grow in an increasingly satisfactory way, officials say.

  The event Tuesday was opened by Tomasz Orłowski the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, who stressed the potential of the Polish export market, which stands out with its ambitious and creative people, high quality of products, new technologies and innovative industry.

  The Embassy decided to identify and reward the Polish industries that over the last financial year have focused on the Italian market and recorded the most dynamic growth in sales.

  This year there are four winners, one for each of the following areas of economic activity: construction industry, electromechanical industry, raw materials, food products. In the future, perhaps as early as next year, a fifth area will be added, that of high technology and innovation.

  The winner in the construction industry was Oknoplast represented by its president Mikołaj Placek. Oknoplast is a Polish company, founded in 1994 in Krakow, producing PVC windows, accessories for windows, external doors, shutters and aluminium products.

  "When we decided to enter the Italian market 10 years ago, it seemed exotic for us, since most of Polish companies were exporting their products to neighbouring countries. Now, Italy is the biggest of our external markets and during our first 10 years, we have established 350 Oknoplast markets all around the country and another 350 markets of the other brand WnD,” Pacek said.

  Also awarded the Centaur prize was Pesa, a company manufacturing railway vehicles based in Bydgoszcz, which supplies its trains to Trenitalia. Its president Tomasz Zaboklicki expressed the honour of cooperation with Italy and he recalled that the activity of both countries is not only a business, but more importantly, building common responsibilty for European Union relations.

  Polski Koks, the biggest exporter of raw materials in Poland, which was also awarded with the Centaur prize, is the coal enter the Italian market barely last year, however the brand is already present on the markets all around the Europe but also in Brasil and India and they provide jobs for 28,000 Polish citizens.

  In the sector of the food industry Centaur was awarded the company Pini Polonia, one of the largest and most modern plants producing sausages in Europe and the world, which ranks third in Europe. The plant can reach a production of 400 tons of product a day using 22 advanced packaging line. The value of export products Pini Polonia to Italy last year reached a level of approx. 61.5 million.

  In addition to the diploma, the winners will also receive a statuette designed and created especially for the occasion by award-winning Polish sculptor Bronisław Krzysztof, known abroad as a designer of Sissy perfume bottles.