Price of farmland skyrocketing

Almost every tender announced by the Agriculture Property Agency (ANR) is attracting enormous interest. "Even wasteland is sold easily. At the end of 2006 a farmer made a bid of zl.38,000 per hectare and acquired over 20 ha," said Stanislaw Stepien, director of ANR in Szczecin. However, prices could go even higher, as at the beginning of April the Olsztyn branch of the Agency sold a hectare for zl.14,000. The average price per hectare in Poland amounts to zl.7,400, but in Wielkopolska the price has already touched zl.10,400 and even zl.11,400 in Kujawy. This is roughly zl.3,000 more than in Sweden. "There are plenty of reasons for this. First of all EU subsidies, second of all return on investment and third of all fear of a new act on the agrarian system, which will limit the size of farms to 300 ha," said Stanislaw Stepien. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) M.M.