The protest, which also includes blockades of the country's border crossings with Ukraine, comes amid a wave of similar demonstrations in other EU countries and reflects broader discontent among agricultural producers across the bloc.
Farmers in France, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and Germany have been protesting against EU measures to tackle climate change as well as rising costs and unfair competition from abroad, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Polish farmers have voiced disgruntlement with the impact of cheap food imports from Ukraine.
Photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
"Our patience has run out," they said in a statement released earlier this month. "Brussels' position ... is unacceptable for our entire agricultural community," they added.
Polish farmers from the Solidarity trade union in early February announced "a general strike," criticising the government for being passive in the face of growing imports of farm produce from Ukraine.
Poland's Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski has voiced understanding for the farmers, who were planning to stage around 200 rallies and road blockades in various parts of the country on Tuesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
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Source: IAR, PAP
