At the next meeting, the high chamber of Polish parliament (the Senate) is to deal with a bill on extraordinary support for farmers suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. 

“If the Senate approves it, the president will sign it immediately, then the payments will be made within a month. I expect that in the next few weeks this additional money will go to farms,” Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, announced.

They will be able to count on assistance from EU funds, which amounts to over EUR 270 million, among others producers of beef, lamb, pork and poultry as well as eggs, milk and ornamental plants.

“Fortunately, we do not observe the impact of the coronavirus on plant production, i.e. cereals, rapeseed, beets, potatoes, fruit and vegetables. However, there are several agricultural sectors that have suffered. First, the price slump was experienced by meat producers, there were problems with sales, almost all of them lowered their prices. This was due to the fact that the countries to which we export are an important market for meat. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to help those farms that have suffered from the coronavirus,” Ardanowski emphasized.  

He explained that the amount of approx. PLN 1.2 billion from the second pillar of the common agricultural policy are funds from the Rural Development Program, for which farmers are less interested, and which were planned in different circumstances a few years ago, when there was no coronavirus.

(Newseria)