Two years have passed since Russia started the war with Ukraine. Every – or at least every reasonable – citizen of our country can see what impact this situation has on Polish agriculture, because it is impossible not to notice the farmers’ protests taking place all over the country. I propose that these blockades could be largely avoided if the idea of establishing the National Food Safety Inspectorate, which was unfortunately abandoned some time ago, came into force.
Farmers protesting in Poland are demanding that many matters be sorted out. One of them is the issue of controlling Ukrainian agricultural products at the border. According to farmers, the services responsible for this do not really work, and the Ukrainian agricultural products that enter the country, mainly grain, are often – to put it mildly – of lower quality than Polish ones.
It is worth emphasizing that the customs officers themselves have recently noticed that the border control system is not working as it should! She wrote about it on farmer.pl, among others: editor Małgorzata Tyszka:
Five control institutions
In Poland, as many as five different institutions are responsible for the control of agri-food products (Sanepid, Veterinary, IJHARS, PIORIN, KAS), including imported ones. Some time ago, former Minister of Agriculture Krzysztof Jurgiel (PiS) came up with the idea of establishing one service entirely responsible for controlling such goods at the border. It was supposed to be the State Food Safety Inspectorate, but it was never established.
– This is the case in most European Union countries – says Jurgiel in an interview with Interia. – One institution would control all these issues. We have five such services, each operating separately. They control feed wheat, consumption wheat, etc. This is one of the reasons for today’s problems. One service could comprehensively check products at the border in terms of quality. When I left, Minister Ardanowski threw it into the trash, and now he is eager to lecture everyone else on what it should look like – emphasizes the former minister.
The problem was bigger than PiS, i.e. the history of the collapse of an idea
It is worth recalling a very interesting article by Jacek Strzelecki, one of the experts cooperating with farmer.pl, although from November 2022, it has not lost its relevance:
On the contrary. In the face of farmers’ protests, loudly and clearly drawing attention to the failing system of controlling agri-food products at the borders, it is worth recalling the following conclusions from this article:
– The United Right government’s abandonment of the reform plan is proof of the lack of a sense that it is important for Polish agriculture, processing and the economy in general. The only thing that was done earlier was taking away one agency and giving another one competences, and adding new responsibilities to some of them. As a result, the United Right government agrees to continue maintaining a system with dispersed competences, which is underfinanced, with staff shortages, officials overloaded with work and responsibilities, and outrageously underpaid – concludes Jacek Strzelecki.
Today, this problem is still relevant – see the comments above, reported by customs officers – and the effects of inspections are still questionable, taking into account, in this case, photos circulating on the Internet of moldy agricultural products transported from beyond the eastern border.
Maybe the current management of the Ministry of Agriculture, looking for ways to meet the demands of protesting farmers, will take up the issue of establishing the State Food Safety Inspectorate again? In my opinion it’s worth it. The war in Ukraine has highlighted why there should be one such oversight body.
.- We want the situation at the border to be systematized. So that we know how many products are arriving and what quality they are. The services that are responsible for this do not really work. The services tell us that if we find out anything, we should notify them. I’m sorry, is a farmer supposed to work as a servant? – Tomasz Obszański from the agricultural Solidarity movement pointed out in the above-mentioned interview for Interia.
Then Minister Kołodziejczak would not have to personally jump on the wagons on the Polish-Ukrainian border to check the quality of the goods transported….
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