By Jo Harper
WARSAW (AA) – More than 260 protests are taking place across Poland, with farmers using tractors to blockade roads, border crossings, and highways in protest of EU trade policies on Ukrainian food imports.
The biggest blockade is in Poznan, western Poland, while demonstrators also blocked border crossings in the provinces of Podkarpackie and Lublin, while bales of hay were set on fire at the border crossing with Ukraine.
The farmers’ union, NSZZ Rolnikow Indywidualnych Solidarnosc (Individual Farmers’ Solidarity Union) wrote on X on Friday morning: "Our patience has run out." It is demanding a change in customs policy in trade with Ukraine and a change in the European Green Deal and the EU "farm to fork" strategy.
Polish farmers have been worried for over two years about Ukrainian grain undercutting prices of local grain after the EU set up supply routes through the EU to avoid Black Sea ports blocked by Russia.
The union said temporary blockades will appear throughout the country until March 10.
"We ask our compatriots for understanding and awareness of the situation we all find ourselves in. We are fighting for our common good, which is to protect Polish family farms, often multi-generational farms, from collapse and bankruptcy," the union wrote on X on Friday.
Czeslaw Siekierski, the agriculture and rural development minister, told Polish Radio that the government accepted the farmers' arguments and was in talks with Brussels and Kyiv over imports from Ukraine, adding that the demonstrations organized by farmers were acceptable forms of protest.