The association of Polish Fruit-Growers appealed to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, asking for the suspension of Ukrainian fruit imports that are creating a ‘dramatic’ drop in demand for local products and lowering prices.
Over 40,000 tonnes of frozen raspberries were imported from Ukraine to Poland, which accounts for half of the country’s annual production, complain the fruit growers, many of whom have reportedly given up picking crops amid decreasing prices.
“The situation on the market of raspberries dedicated to export is dramatic,” the association’s head Mirosław Maliszewski insisted in the statement. “The buying-in price is constantly plummeting, with numerous processing plants announcing suspending purchase,” he said.
About 150 raspberry growers began protests in the Lubelskie region, Eastern Poland, against the liberalisation of imports of agricultural products from Ukraine that the EU introduced a year ago. They blocked roads to prevent raspberry deliveries from Ukraine.
Maliszewski stressed that the association has signalled the problem to Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus and EU Commissioner for Agricu`Polish consumers.
Transitional period for Ukraine in EU market
The problem also concerns Polish apple growers amid massive imports of cheap apple juice from Ukraine, which is likely to cause demand for Polish apples to drop, along with the prices, according to Maliszewski’s predictions.
Lower production standards in Ukraine call for transitional periods for Ukraine to participate in the EU’s agrifood market once the country joins the EU, Maliszewski said, “so that the Ukrainian products are not immediately allowed to the EU market on similar conditions as our products.”
“We demand from the European Commission that Ukraine introduces the EU’s best standards of agrifood production. With cheaper and lower-standard production in Ukraine, we cannot compete with Ukrainian producers.”
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
Read more with EURACTIV
Malta’s abortion law reform insufficient, critics say
Source: euractiv.com
