agriculture and food economy in poland

Restructuring and Modernisation of the Food Sector and Rural Development
The aid will be financed from the European Agriculture Guidance and
Guarantee Fund (EAGGF).
Agricultural producers will also benefit indirectly from intervention measures
undertaken on the Common market, financed from the EU budget, and regional
development programmes.
Direct payments
AGRICULTURAL POLICY
The system of single area payments is a new solution, not applied in the EU-15
so far. The system in Poland is based on direct payments to agricultural land
including:
- a single area payment, financed in total from the EU budget constituting 25%,
30% and 35% in 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively of payments applicable in the
EU. The rate of payment to 1 ha of UAA will be determined by the European
Commission based on Poland’s envelope (financial conversion of premiums
and reference areas under crops covered by payments in the EU allocated for
Poland in the Accession Treaty),
- supplementary payments financed from the national budget and partly from
the shift of UE funds for Poland allocated for RADP implementation within the
following years 2004, 2005 and 2006 up to 55%, 60% and 65% for crops eligible
for EU support (cereals, including maize for animal feedingstuffs, oilseeds,
high protein crops, flax and hemp for fibre, pulses, tobacco, hops, starch
potatoes) and fodder areas related to animal production covered by animal
premiums in the EU (cattle, sheep, milk).
It is estimated that the rate of a single area payment will be ca Euro 45 per ha,
which corresponds to ca PLN 200 (depending on the Euro exchange rate), whereas
that of supplementary payments will be determined by the Council of Ministers
annually. The rate of supplementary payments depends on the type of crops and will
range from Euro 60 per ha (cereals, oilseeds, high protein crops, flax, hemp, vetch,
crops grown for seeds and meadows and pastures) to 220 Euro/ha for hemp, 50
Euro/t for starch potatoes and 5 PLN/kg for tobacco.
Applications for direct payments in Poland were submitted until the extended
deadline of 15 June 2004 (from 15 April); 85% of eligible farmers applied for such
payments, for the area of 92% of UAA.
In addition, under a single application for area payments, farmers applied for
payments to farms in less favoured areas (LFA) (53% of the total UAA in Poland).
It is estimated that Polish farmers will receive over PLN 6 billion annually as
direct payments.
On 1 May 2004 payments to buying in prices of extra grade milk were abolished
and as from the second half of 2004 fuel vouchers, or payments to certified seeds as
well as the hitherto forms of intervention on the pork market (intervention buying
in) will be withdrawn.
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