More than 150 farmers blocked a road in the village of Elżbieta in Poland’s Lublin Voivodeship demanding a ban on imports of Ukrainian raspberries due to lower purchase prices at Polish fruit and vegetable freezing companies, SadyOgrody reports.
Polish farmers consider the prices offered by processing companies to be too low, and intensive imports of raspberries from Ukraine further worsen the situation on the Polish domestic market.
According to the Polish newspaper, the first strike by berry growers took place last Monday. During a larger protest on June 27, about 150 raspberry growers blocked traffic at the Elżbieta roundabout in Lublin Oblast. The organizers hope that the number of participants will increase with each subsequent protest.
“In the coming days, the producers are planning further actions against too low raspberry prices. Tomorrow there will be another protest in Annopol. The producers intend to block the entrances to processing plants to block the delivery of Ukrainian raspberries there,” the publication notes.
As reported, on June 16, the Association of Gardeners of the Republic of Poland sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture of Poland Robert Telusz with a request to take urgent measures to stop the import of strawberries from Ukraine, limit it and then completely stop it.
The business association insisted on the introduction of a system of official quality control of each batch of fruits and berries entering the country, especially for plant protection products (PPPs) residues, and also proposed to suspend further trade in the product until the results of the examination are received.
