At the end of April, we observed strong frosts in Poland, which were accompanied by advanced vegetation also in fruit crops. First, frosts and then hailstorms caused significant losses in Polish fruit farming. After this situation, as Czesław Siekierski presented today, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the process of collecting information and estimating losses in the regions was launched. Actions were taken at the governmental and European level, on May 27 this year, during the meeting of the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers, in which Deputy Minister Michał Kołodziejczak participated. The topic was continued by the Polish ministry at the EU level.
First estimates of orchard losses and the European Commission's declaration on granting support
– We immediately received a reaction from the European Commission, which said that work in this area was being carried out and that we should provide the first estimates. We have made some verification and new arrangements with the voivodes. Information was provided there and loss estimates were collected. They are not final, but just this basic figure shows the scale of losses. We think that the Commission will use the funds it has in its agricultural reserve to provide some kind of support to those countries that have been affected, as I said, by frosts and hail. These two areas, these two types of losses after we submit our proposal, will work on our expectations. We are convinced that the first proposals from the Commission should be received by the end of July. We do not assume that only Poland will receive such aid, there is also an announcement for Austria and Hungary, which have submitted applications and are now affected by losses due to frosts.
The Polish application with preliminary estimates of losses was sent last Friday.
Help for fruit growers will be collected from various reserves
At the same time, the minister emphasizes that it is difficult to talk about the amount of support because the entire amount of the agricultural reserve, which is dedicated to various purposes, is much smaller than the losses that were initially sent from Poland. – We also want to obtain some funds from certain special-purpose reserves from the Ministry of Agriculture, from the budget of the Ministry of Finance, in order to prepare a certain support proposal for farmers affected by the frost and hail disaster – he added
As Joanna Trybus, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Markets, recalled, in spring we experienced extreme frosts in most Polish voivodeships.
– In 10 out of 16 voivodeships we experienced extreme, unfavorable conditions, as we recorded a temperature drop of up to minus 8 degrees Celsius, where the exposure time of plants was up to 12 hours, hence significant losses were recorded primarily in our orchard areas and soft fruit areas. We are in direct contact and cooperate with the European Commission. We have provided very preliminary estimated data obtained from voivodes, the commissions are still working and we are still waiting for the final losses within individual voivodeships, noted Trybus.
Industries such as fruit farming and vineyards are particularly exposed to the risk of crop loss during early spring frosts. Additionally, these crops are capital-intensive in spring. Hence, losses caused by frost and later hail were severe this season.
– This ruined the situation of many farms in Poland. I think we can determine it in thousands of households. Not only do they have a reduction in yield, but most of these farms have no crop at all, so this means that the first money they can get from selling fruit is the fall and summer of next year, so they have to survive until then, they have to make further expenditure on so that these orchards are not neglected so that they can produce normally in the next season – said Mirosław Maliszewski Mirosław Maliszewski, chairman of the parliamentary RiRW committee and president of the Association of Fruit Growers of the Republic of Poland.
At the same time, he added – The possibility of using funds from the European Union budget is a new solution and we are very pleased with this initiative. This will allow the amount that will ultimately be signed for producers to be increased by this value. These farms absolutely need help – they are farms that are developing on the market, that compete in the world, that finally produce products that are our pride of export, such as currants, strawberries, raspberries, apples, and blueberries.
The market reacted because, as Maliszewski said, the harvest season is underway and many processing plants complain that they simply cannot buy the raw material.
Depending on the farm, losses are estimated at the level from 10% to even 100%, because Mirosław Maliszewski added that for many farming families this means up to a year and a half without income from their activities, therefore this aid is intended to maintain the plantation in good condition and continuing operations will be key.
