June 26 2007, 09:26

Polish producers of commercial strawberry and raspberry will get EUR 20 mln. of donations from EU budget

European Union decided to support Polish growers of strawberry and raspberry by means of allocating the direct support to the production acreage. The donation worth to EUR 400 per hectare will be available not to all producers, but only to those who sells the grown produce to the processing enterprises.

Most Polish farmers are dissatisfied with such decision, because they have been actively switching to strawberry and raspberry production for the fresh market in recent years; local producers can't stand the competition with Chinese and Moroccan producers of frozen berries. Poland remains the country - main producer of frozen berries in the EU, so that the European Union tries to prevent the reduction of the production volumes by means of the direct donations.

According to the experts' evaluations, the total acreage of up to 50 thousands of hectares may be subject to donation. So, this program in Poland will cost European Union EUR 20 mln. To compare, the total acreage of raspberry and strawberry is only 15-15,000 ha in Ukraine, according to estimations of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal".