WARSAW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) – The agriculture chamber of Greater Poland Voivodeship blames Polish politicians for recent Russia’s ban on imports of fruits and vegetables from Poland.
“The political bias of Poland in the Ukrainian conflict backfired with economic consequences. Unbalanced statements of some of Polish politicians led to a response by the Russian side. Direct victims of such economic and agricultural restrictions are Polish agricultural producers. We expect that these very politicians would now help us solve the existing problems,” the statement said.
The chamber addressed the Polish government with a plea to find an immediate solution to the issue concerning the compensation of losses, which Polish producers sustain following the embargo.
“It is necessary to take urgent measures because economic entities, oriented on the Russian market may go bankrupt before the EU procedures [on loss compensation] are finalized,” the document read.
Starting from August 1, Russia’s agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor imposed a ban on all fruits and vegetables, imported from Poland, citing numerous breaches in certification and the detection of quarantined items.
Russia is one of Poland’s key markets. In 2013, Poland exported over 840,000 tons of fruits and vegetables to Russia. According to the Polish Ministry of Agriculture, the country may lose more than $670 million on the embargo.
Earlier this week, Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki said that the country was getting ready for a possible ban on beef and poultry imports from Poland.
