Agriculture Minister continues to grapples with grain purchase crisis

Yesterday saw further limited farmer' s protests against the halt in purchased of grain by private grain silos, which are subsidized by the state. In Wroclaw 40 farmers protested in front of the Voivodeship Office and demanded that the Agricultural Market Agency (ARR) open more collection points and increase its intervention on the market. The protests started last week as queues of farmer at silos were told there was no money to finance further purchases of this year' s bumper crop. Agriculture Minister Jaroslaw Kalinowski declared that he would personally present propositions of changes in the grain intervention purchase system to Prime Minister Leszek Miller. The ARR promised to open a further 180 grain purchase points within ten days. Minister Kalinowski denies accusations that the government was badly prepared for the large crop, as he says far more grain has already been purchased in comparison to previous years. However, the leaders of Self-Defense claim that Kalinowski and his colleagues should still resign, as they remain responsible as they failed to heed earlier warning signals from the market that this crisis was coming. (Zycie, p. 3) P.W.