‘I hope I don’t live to see Ukraine join the EU, and I hope to live a long life’

The prospect of Ukraine’s likely EU accession is becoming less popular with Poles, as farmers and truckers face price collapses. And with disputes over historical memory, too, mistrust is deepening.

In late May, in open fields dotted with pines and black oak, the wheat was growing tall and the first red beans were beginning to sprout. But Jerzy Płachta, a farmer in Pińczów, about 80km north of Krakow in Świętokrzyskie voivodeship, was worried. He told us, ‘I hope I don’t live to see Ukraine join the EU, and I hope to live a long life.’ His wife Renata, who manages their grain and legume farm, steered the conversation: ‘We have nothing against Ukrainians – they are integrating well. In 2022 we volunteered to take in refugees and donated money to charities that buy drones. We support them, but their country is a threat to Polish agriculture.’

Since Poland joined the EU in 2004, the Płachta family has been selling produce to French supermarket chains that operate in Poland – Auchan, Casino, Carrefour and Leclerc, which also imports goods into France. Płachta told us about their struggle to get to this point: ‘French companies require IFS Food Certification, a safety and quality standard with requirements that we need to meet. And to get EU subsidies we need to document how often we till the soil, comply with specific seed types and planting schedules and so on. We have more and more things to record in logs that inspectors review onsite every year.’
 Until recently, it was worth the effort. ‘But since the war in Ukraine, prices have halved,’ Płachta said. ‘With the influx of Ukrainian products, we’ve had to cut costs and reduce staff. We had ten employees in 2014 and now we only have two. A third of the farms in Świętokrzyskie are in financial difficulty. Many are giving up.’ On his way back to the village, he paused in front of the construction site where he and his wife were building a house for one of their children. The project was a testament to their success, but it was tinged with sadness – Płachta was disappointed that his son preferred city life in Krakow to the countryside.

Marcin Biesaga’s farm lay a few kilometres away. (…)

Full article: 3 515 words.

(1) World Bank data from 2023, data.worldbank.org/indicator/.

(2) World Bank data, data.worldbank.org/indicator/.

(6) World Bank data, data.worldbank.org/indicator/.