Farmers in Poland are afraid of Ukraine joining the EU - a general opinion

Polish farmers are afraid that after joining the EU, Ukraine will develop the agri-food complex even more actively and they will not be able to withstand competition. In Poland, they believe that protecting the market and preparing it for competition with Ukraine is the biggest challenge that Polish agriculture will face after Ukraine joins the EU. In particular, according to the calculations of the Greater Poland Chamber of Agriculture, the area of agricultural land in Ukraine is 41.3 million hectares, which is three times more than in Poland. The share of arable land in the total area of Ukraine is one of the highest and is 54%, while the average level in European countries is about 35%. In Ukraine, 0.9 ha of arable land per inhabitant is twice as much as the average in Europe, which is 0.44 ha. Ukraine is also one of the world's largest exporters of grain, rapeseed, sunflower oil and meal. In addition, the majority of agricultural products are produced by dozens of powerful agricultural holdings. Ukrainian agriculture is highly concentrated with huge agricultural complexes that integrate the entire production chain of crop and livestock production (from production of agricultural products to animal breeding, production, distribution and retailing of ready-made food products). The 20 largest holdings control 14 percent of the 30 million hectares of Ukrainian arable land. Therefore, Polish farmers fear that after Ukraine's accession to the EU, the potential of Ukrainian agriculture will develop significantly, and they will not be able to withstand competition with agricultural holdings.

Because of this, in particular, the Jagiellonian Club believes that farmers' dissatisfaction with Ukraine's accession to the EU may cause a serious crisis. After all, the huge area of agricultural land with very high fertility, in combination with subsidies within the framework of the common agricultural policy, provided according to the size of the farm, and the complete liberalization of trade can cause resistance from farmers in the EU countries.

Ukrainian farmers have previously linked the behavior of a number of European countries, in particular Poland. In the matter of the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products with concerns about the fate of their own farmers. As the president of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation Leonid Kozachenko noted, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania cannot compete with Ukraine in the agro-industrial complex, and blocking Ukrainian exports contradicts the positions of the European Commission and the European Parliament. In his opinion, such actions are a violation of the position of the European Commission and the European Parliament regarding Ukrainian exports, including transit ones, across the borders of the European Union. As a possible way to solve the problem, Leonid Kozachenko sees the creation by these countries of a corridor through their territories and blocking the actions of their local traders who will purchase Ukrainian products and sell them on the domestic market, because this creates problems for all parties to the process.

It should be noted that restrictions and prohibitions by some EU countries in the second quarter of the current year led to a significant reduction in the volume of Ukrainian agricultural exports to the European Union - from USD 3.7 billion. USA in January-March up to 1.6 billion dollars. USA in April-June. In general, in January-June 2023, the turnover of trade in agricultural goods between Ukraine and the European Union is almost 6.8 billion US dollars.