Mateusz Morawiecki made the announcement at a news conference in Warsaw on Friday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland to give farmers EUR 2.2 bn in aid
The prime minister said that the government had approved measures including increasing the amount of excise duty farmers can have refunded on diesel fuel to PLN 1.46 (EUR 0.32) per litre, from PLN 1.20 (EUR 0.26) per litre, according to officials.
Morawiecki said the government would also ask the European Commission to give it permission to raise the amount that can be refunded to PLN 2 (EUR 0.43), the Reuters news agency reported.
Moreover, Poland will also pay subsidies to ensure farmers get a minimum price of PLN 1,400 (EUR 304) per metric ton of wheat, as well as subsidies for other grains, including corn, rapeseed oil and rye, and on the purchase of fertiliser, the PAP news agency reported.
The Polish government’s new aid package for farmers is worth PLN 10 billion (EUR 2.2 billion), officials told reporters.
Morawiecki stated: “It’s the biggest-ever assistance package for Polish agriculture,” according to the PAP news agency.
EU response ‘too little, too late’: Polish PM
The Polish prime minister also criticised proposed EU measures to help agriculture in the Central European countries affected by a glut of Ukrainian food imports.
He told reporters: "What the EU is offering us is offered with a delay; it is too little, a drop in the ocean of needs."
Central European states have been seeking to strike a deal with the EU on bloc-wide policies to help farmers after some of them—such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria—unilaterally banned Ukrainian food imports, according to news outlets.
Poland on Tuesday agreed to lift an embargo on the transit of Ukrainian grain and food products, on condition that shipments will be "sealed, escorted and monitored," officials said.
EU offers EUR 100 mln in aid for farmers in Central Europe
The EU’s executive Commission has offered EUR 100 million in aid for Central European farmers, on top of an earlier EUR 56 million package, the Reuters news agency reported.
Brussels has also pledged to take emergency "preventive measures" for wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and rapeseed, but the Central European states want this list to be widened to include other products, such as honey and some meats, according to Reuters.
Several Central European states served as transit routes for Ukrainian grain that could not be exported through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports due to Russia's full-scale invasion in February last year, news outlets reported.
Due to logistical bottlenecks, millions of tons of grains then became trapped in countries bordering Ukraine, forcing local farmers to compete with an influx of cheap Ukrainian imports, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Friday is day 422 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters, RFERL