Poland: Farmers angry at Ukraine

DW (English)

Polish farmers are protesting Ukrainian grain and fruit imports to the EU and blocking border crossings in the process, creating tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw.

Transcript

00:00 The Medika-Sheyni border crossing between Poland and Ukraine.

00:06 This is not the usual traffic.

00:09 Nationwide farmers' protests in Poland have come to this - a blockade at the border.

00:15 This Ukrainian driver has been stuck on the Polish side for more than two weeks.

00:20 He can't get back into Ukraine.

00:22 "There is no room in the car.

00:26 We are standing on the side cooking and now I'm going to wash the dishes."

00:32 Farmers in Poland have been in revolt over low prices and bad conditions.

00:36 They recently took their protest to the capital Warsaw.

00:40 Mateusz Dabrowski supports the protest.

00:43 He is an apple farmer.

00:45 Business is getting tougher and a lot is at stake for his family.

00:50 "My father Marek and one of my brothers Tomek are with me.

00:55 For many generations our family has been involved in fruit growing.

00:59 It's been over a hundred years of fruit production as a family.

01:02 Father, brothers, our wives, my in-laws, we all deal strictly with apple production.

01:09 We produce over a thousand tons annually."

01:11 "We are a farming family.

01:20 My grandfather was a fruit grower.

01:22 My dad and all of us went into this production because we love working in the orchard and

01:28 it brings us satisfaction.

01:30 But I see that from an economic point of view the situation is getting worse because production

01:36 costs are very high and fruit prices are low.

01:39 Fruit prices are at the level of 15 years ago.

01:43 Production costs have increased over these years."

01:47 Economists say the European Union is responsible for the crisis because of environmental regulations

01:53 and the open border policy for Ukraine.

01:56 In Poland, the crisis is a challenge for the new pro-EU government which says it'll do

02:02 all it can to protect Polish farmers from unfair competition.

02:07 "It is a fact that half of the arable land in Ukraine belongs to agri-holdings.

02:14 The largest agri-holding comprises of more than one million hectares of land.

02:19 Such farms cannot be compared to any other farms in the European Union.

02:23 What we see with the imports from Ukraine is that the stability may be slightly imbalanced."

02:33 As a show of solidarity with Ukraine following Russia's invasion, the European Union agreed

02:38 to allow goods from Ukraine to come into the bloc with little to no restrictions.

02:45 But farmers in Poland say this support cannot come at the cost of their livelihoods.

02:52 "These protests are not against the citizens of Ukraine.

02:57 Ukraine was supported.

02:59 I think the majority of Polish farmers still support continuing to support Ukraine, whether

03:05 militarily or humanitarian.

03:08 Two years ago, when we welcomed them, when there were a lot of refugees, especially women

03:13 and children, I think if someone followed the situation in foreign media, they saw that

03:19 in Poland there was this willingness and openness to welcome them.

03:26 I emphasize this because this is about the future of Polish agriculture."

03:37 The timing of the protests, as well as radical views expressed by some demonstrators, have

03:43 aroused suspicion that outside forces may be exploiting the farmers' anger for different

03:50 ends.

03:51 "The major question we would today have is what happened that just now, in such a massive

03:55 scale, these protests happened.

03:58 And here we can expect that it's not by chance, that it can be also manipulated and it can

04:06 be also fueled.

04:07 It's like fueled by somebody else.

04:11 We are absolutely sure Russia can use these protests as well to create tensions within

04:16 the EU countries, also including Poland."

04:20 Mateusz Dabrowski and many Polish farmers are prepared to put more pressure on their

04:24 government.

04:25 Meanwhile, negotiations between Warsaw and Kiev are ongoing.

04:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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