Press
SymBio Polska S. A.

Sejm passes bill for organic farming

By Juliet D. Golden
Date: January 22, 2001
Section: News

Parliament removed a key obstacle preventing the speedy introduction of an organic farming law last week.

About two years in the works, the bill will clearly define what products are considered organic and set rules for monitoring and subsidizing organic farming schemes in Poland. Industry analysts also said the legislation could be a first step for Poland's organic food products to be exported to the European Union (EU) on a large scale.

While the bill was on the legislative fast track through much of the autumn, a last-minute amendment put forward by Peasants Party (PSL) MPs threatened to bring progress on the bill to a halt. In December, PSL deputies moved to strike a provision in the bill that would allow organic products certified in the EU to be freely imported here. Without such a provision, organic imports from the EU would have to undergo re-certification in Poland before being released on the market. The change angered government officials and organic activists.

"If certification has been carried out in the EU in the exact same way as required in Poland, it wouldn't be necessary for Polish certification agencies to inspect these products," said Wieslaw Wawiernia, a specialist in the Agriculture Ministry.

For products to be qualified as organic, farms must undergo a rigorous certification process that ensures all products are produced according to traditional farming methods, which exclude the use of pesticides and other chemicals.

PSL parliamentarians argued that by heightening certification requirements for EU products, Polish organic farmers would be protected from an onslaught of cheaper imports from the EU.

However, for proponents of organic farming in Poland, any hampering of the flow of EU organic products into Poland could prevent the smooth flow of Polish organic exports to the EU.

At present, the EU only exports "symbolic" amounts of organic goods into Poland, according to Maria Staniszewska, president of the Coalition for Organic Farming (COF). Polish producers are looking to the bill to open the way for Polish products to be sold on the EU market. Staniszewska said that any attempt to raise barriers to EU goods will only backfire on Poland's nascent organic industry, which in light of ongoing food safety scandals in the EU is badly in need of access to union markets.

"Our certification methods are based on EU certification procedures, so products certified here should have the same value as European products," Staniszewska said. "So at the same time that we are blocking the road to EU (products), we are closing the door to our exports."

However, this obstacle was removed last week when the majority of deputies threw their support behind a motion submitted by Freedom Union (UW) deputy Jan Wyrowinski to allow EU products on the Polish market without re-certification. According to Wyrowinski, deputies were not only under pressure from organic farming groups, but also from the Office of the Committee for European Integration (UKIE), which has to sign off on the bill before it can be voted on by the Sejm. The organic farming bill is on the list of laws that must be in harmony with EU legislation before they're passed by the Sejm. The PSL proposal jeopardized the bill from receiving final approval by UKIE head Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Wyrowinski said. "Saryusz-Wolski and his committee voiced a very strong opinion on this," Wyrowinski said.

With this barrier removed, the bill will probably be slated for a final vote by the Sejm when it reconvenes on Jan. 31, Wyrowinski said. Before the organic farming law makes it onto the books, it will also have to be signed by President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Industry officials said last week that the law would be a crucial step in leading to the growth of the organic industry in Poland.

"Actually passing laws on organic farming is something we've been waiting for a long time," said Tokya Dammond, chairman and founder of Symbio Impex, a company that trains organic farmers, buys their products and markets them in Poland and abroad.

The absence of a law has been a key reason why the organic farming movement has lagged behind other countries in Europe.

While 10 years ago only 27 organic farms (300 total hectares) were registered in Poland, by 1999 that number increased to 555 (11,000 total hectares). Agriculture Ministry officials estimate that last year the number increased more than two-fold.

The ministry has recently set a goal to have 10,000 organic farms in operation during the next decade, which would signify about 0.5% of the 18.5 million hectares of agricultural land in Poland.

To entice farmers to convert their operations to organic schemes, in 1998 the government started to make annual payments to farmers who had already received certification, and to those who are undertaking the two-to-three year process of converting from conventional agriculture to organic regimes. Last year the government spent zl. 4 million ($975,000) in direct subsidies that went to about 1,000 farmers, Wawiernia said. About zl. 6 million ($1.46 million) is reserved in this year's budget for organic farmers.

The increase in demand for organic products in Western Europe has not only been a driving force behind the development of the industry in Western Europe but in other post-communist countries as well. In Hungary, for example, the total value of organic products exceeded E15 million in 1999. While only 0.5% of all farmland in Hungary was devoted to organic farming, 95% of all organic products were exported, largely to Western Europe.

Last year, Symbio Impex exported almost $600,000 worth of organic strawberries, blueberries, black currants and vegetables to companies in Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the U.K. This year, company officials estimate that exports will exceed $1 million.

Organic products sold by Symbio are certified in Poland by the Lublin-based Polish Association for Ecological Agriculture (PTRE), one of three certifying organizations in Poland. To access EU markets, Symbio Impex has farm products that are re-certified by a German-based certification body. "Without that, we would not be able to export to EU countries," Dammond said.

• The Warsaw Business ;
• The Financial Times ;
• The Sunday Times ;
• Changemakers ;
• Newsweek Polska  ;
• ÖKO Markt Forum  ;
• Warsaw Voice ;