CAP reform could alter prospects for Polish agriculture

A WBJ news round-up

The governments of the 25 current and future EU member states have reached an agreement to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, which will place more emphasis on quality of agricultural production rather than quantity.

While the proportional value of agricultural aid received by Polish farmers will remain in line with the conditions set out in the country's accession treaty, domestic farms will no longer be able to count on receiving aid according to their quantity of production. More stringent quality controls will mean that the value of a farm's aid will be determined by market demand for their product.

Some market observers fear that this could put local farmers at a disadvantage, as domestic farm operations, which use older and less efficient technologies, might not be able to compete in terms of product quality. However, most analysts agree that the greater degree of flexibility given to farmers under the reformed CAP program will allow them to run a more efficient business.

By giving farmers more leeway in determining what to produce, CAP's reformers hope that the new program will even out market imbalances within the 30-year-old program to support European farmers.