Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Henryk Kowalczyk has put forward a proposal to help farmers who have suffered financially as a result of grain imports from Ukraine. Farmers in the provinces bordering Ukraine will be able to receive PLN 250/t of wheat grain each. In the Małopolskie, Świętokrzyskie and Mazowieckie voivodeships, the aid will be 200 PLN/t, and in the remaining voivodeships, 150 PLN/t.

The money will be assured for farmers presenting an invoice for the grain sold with a date from 15 December 2022. The scheme is to operate until 31 May.

The aid will be submitted on the basis of crop declarations to the Agency for the Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture, and it will be paid up to a maximum of 60 % of the average yield of a given crop.

In two border Lubelskie and Podkarpackie voivodeships, the maximum amount of aid will be 825 PLN per hectare for wheat and 1050 PLN per hectare for maize; in the Świętokrzyskie, Małopolskie, Mazowieckie and Podlaskie voivodeships, the amounts will be 660 PLN per hectare for wheat and 840 PLN per hectare for maize. In the rest of the country, it will be 495 PLN per hectare for wheat and 630 PLN per hectare for maize”, said Minister Kowalczyk.

The maximum amount of aid will be PLN 50 000. The European Commission has to give its approval for the aid.

The aid proposal for Polish farmers is a response to their growing discontent over low grain prices.

Feed wheat from Ukraine for 960 PLN/t is offered on the Internet. Sellers promise deliveries of the commodity by wagons and cars to Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany and other EU countries. Such offers sting the eyes of Polish grain producers, who have full warehouses.

As recently as last August, the price of a tonne of wheat was at 1450-1500 PLN/t. Meanwhile, as early as January, the highest offers were at 1100 PLN/t, and even then, buyers showed limited interest and explained this by a fall in demand.

Adrian Andrzejewski