Statistics show new EU members' farmers record huge incomes

From among the new EU member states, only the Czech Republic had higher growth, at 108%. The income in all new member states together grew by 50% on average, while in the "old" EU it increased by mere 0.8%. However, Polish experts warn that the data does not represent the full domestic agriculture picture, since Eurostat examined only 12,000 domestic farms that do bookkeeping. In Poland there are over 1.5 million farms. Of that, only the 50,000 largest keep accounting records. According to Jerzy Plewa, a former chief negotiator for agriculture issues, the agricultural incomes for producers of white beet and stock-farmers were among those which grew the most, while the year was disastrous for grain and soft fruit producers. (Gazeta Wyborcza, December 18-19; pp.1,29) E.B.