Food producers had to freeze PLN 1.5bn (EUR 417m) of investments in 2007 because the Agency of Agriculture Restructuring and Modernization (ARiMR) did not launch EU programs for the years 2007-13. The programs won’t be launched for at least several upcoming weeks.
“Subsidies will be launched till the end of the year”, Leszek Drozdziel, ARiMR CEO said in September 2007.
Neither his agency, nor the Ministry of Agriculture, say when first round of applications for the subsidies will start. According to unofficial sources, it won’t happen before the end of March.
“How can Polish companies be competitive if their investments are blocked by red tape? Lithuania, Bulgaria and many other new EU members, can already get the subsidies and we can’t”, Lukasz Andraszak, CEO of Salus meat plants said.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.278)