...Yet EU subsidies up for grabs provoke stampede to snap up farmland

For example, Agriculture Real Estate Agency (ANR) in Szczecin sold 550 hectares in March, followed by 800 hectares thus far in April, and estimates to sell as much as 1,200 hectares next month. Individual farmers, who on average want to buy between 20 to 30 hectares of state land to expand their farms, are particularly keen to buy farmland in order to get higher EU subsidies. Indeed, it has been noted that ever more people are attending land tenders. "In the past, we had to organize two or even three tenders and the land was only sold after a price reduction. Now, virtually everything sells during the first tender," revealed Urszula Krakowska, the director of the ANR's Gdańsk office. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1) K.J.