Government to alleviate crisis in agriculture by suspending duty-free import s

In light of the difficult situation in the farming sector, the government de cided today to increase intervention in grain purchases and to suspend, for three months, the duty-free contingent of 480,000 tones of grain from the Eu ropean Union. The additional intervention purchases will cost zl. 370 millio n and will be financed by the Agricultural Market Agency, increasing its deb ts which already stand at zl. 1.5 billion. In addition, Agriculture Minister Jaros3aw Kalinowski will begin talks with the EU on suspending its duty free grain contingent. "We have not had such a difficult situation in farming for 12 years," said Kalinowski. Currently Poland has grain stocks of 4 million t ones, and this year's crop is - forecast at over 26 million tones - will fu rther swell supplies of grain. The government also decided to subsidize expo rts of over 40,000 tones of beef and pork. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 6; Reuter s) T.J.