Polish farmers are protesting in Brussels today in a bid to gain increased compensation to help offset the impact of the Russian imports ban.
The country’s agriculture minister is also battling to get exports of pigs and cattle moving again into the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The Brussels protest is, according to the European farmers’ organisation Copa-Cogeca, being made in the face of a potential loss of exports to Russia worth £10bn. Poland’s Minister of Agriculture, Marek Sawicki, met European Farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos at the end of last week to press for greater action to support his farmers.
The Minister’s efforts in relation to Kazakhstan, meanwhile, drew the following official statement from Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture: “Minister Sawicki noted that Kazakhstan still applies restrictions in importing cattle and pigs from Poland as well as not respecting the regionalisation introduced in Poland in connection with the detected ASF (African swine fever) cases.
“He discussed the example of the Republic of Belarus, which, as a member of the Customs Union, revoked on August 20, 2014, the ban on importing cattle, ruminants and their biologic material.
“In this context, the Minister emphasized that it is necessary to organise a meeting between the representatives of the Polish and Kazakh veterinary service at the earliest convenience.”