Strawberries giving farmers the blues

With 25 percent of all Polish farms producing fruit, the country is a potentate in the production of berries, but a farmer's life is all but sweet.

Poland is the biggest producer of strawberries in Europe, growing 180,000 tonnes annually, and the leading exporter to the EU with a 70-percent share of the market. But Polish farmers are warning that if no measures are taken in two to three years punnet punters might only be able to buy strawberries grown in China and Morocco.

"We have been trying to fix what hasn't been taken into account during the negotiations of Poland's accession treaty. Even though we are the biggest producer of berries in the EU, we don't have the same rights as producers of citrus fruit," says Bogdan Golik, a Member of the European Parliament.

No protection

The Minister of Agriculture, Andrzej Lepper, agrees. "The problem of berries is a serious one and it is very strange that nobody looked out for the interests of fruit farmers during the negotiations. Greece managed to win protection for its production of olives and we should have done the same," Lepper says.

Within the last five years imports of Chinese strawberries to the EU have increased sevenfold to 43,000 tonnes. In 2005 the average price of strawberries from China amounted to EUR 461 (zł.1,880) per tonne, over EUR 250 (zł.1,020) less than in the case of Polish fruit.

EU action

At the request of Polish fruit-processing businesses, the EU Commission is currently looking at an anti-dumping motion to reduce imports from China and Morocco, but this season is already lost for Polish growers.

"The former Minister of Agriculture, Krzysztof Jurgiel, filed a motion to the EU Commission in January to introduce duties on fruit from China and Morocco but the procedures last nine months so it's too late now," says Lepper.

Janusz Glinicki, CEO of Sadpol, one of the biggest strawberry farmers in Poland, adds: "We cannot count on someone dealing with the problem on our behalf. Countries such as France or Spain have no interest in promoting Polish fruit - they've got serious interests in Morocco. But Poles just don't have their lobby groups in Brussels."

Glinicki stresses that among the 20,000 EU clerks in Brussels, there are 15,000 lobbyists, but those from Poland number just over a dozen.

Hope for the future

Farmers are hoping that the reform of the EU fruit-market regulations due to be introduced in September is going to change their situation and are already preparing to take a stand.

But EU regulations are not the farmers' sole dilemma. The Russian embargo on Polish products doesn't only refer to meat but also includes fruit. "Because of the ban, Polish farmers and entrepreneurs have already lost some $300 [zł.975] million. We have approached the EU's Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, on numerous occasions and EU help in that respect is one of our most important demands," says Golik. However, in spite of numerous talks held between Polish and Russian authorities, the ban remains in place.

Staff shortage

Finding staff is also proving problematic. Despite the three million unemployed Poles, farmers are struggling to find hands to work and hold no illusions about finding their fruit pickers in Poland. Even the Agriculture Minister admits he's not surprised Poles don't want to work for zł.2.50 to zł.3 an hour, but farmers say they cannot pay more with the current purchase prices. The only solution is seasonal workers from Ukraine and Belarus, but the Polish Labor code doesn't provide for this category.