Ukrainian farmers advise Poland to grow marijuana instead of grain
Polish farmers cannot fully compete in the grain market and, instead of blocking Ukrainian exports, they need to switch to growing flowers or marijuana – as stated by the President of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Alex Lissitsa, in his talk with Politico, TASS reports
“On the one hand, we are being asked to adapt our production to EU standards, while on the other… EU countries are blocking our exports and trying to reintroduce quotas,” he said, adding that protectionism will not save the EU agricultural sector. “Polish farmers are too small to be real players in the global grain market, where they have to compete with countries such as Ukraine, Brazil or Russia. They’d be better off specialising in the production of flowers, fruits or vegetables – or even marijuana.”
On February 9th, Polish farmers began to hold large-scale protests and block checkpoints located on the border with Ukraine. They demand to limit or completely ban imports of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine. The protests were supported by the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland. As Verkhovna Rada deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak previously reported, the budget of Ukraine had lost more than $523m by March 1st because of the blockade of the border with Poland. In turn, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Danil Getmantsev, said the damage for March will reach another $166.8m.
