EU subsidies enable Poland to become leader in mushroom and apple exports
Poland is the world's leading producer of button mushrooms. In Ozorow, 100 km from Warsaw, on ''Mushroom Paradise'' farm, 180 employees of which many are Ukrainian immigrants, work for about €500/month. The owner, Jazub Sztandera, a young 33 year old with a law degree who has turned to farming says, ''I can say it: Thank you to the European Union for the subsidies given to us. In 2008 we started with a farming area of 5,000 metres squared. We have developed and multiplied our acreage by 6 times. This year we have almost reached 30,000 metres squared.''
Further South, in Chynow, there are orchard farms as far as the eye can see; Poland has also become the world's leading apple exporter.
An employee in a cooperative that groups together 60 or so local farmers says that the subsidies allowed them to buy farming equipment that they needed, such as tractors and sprayers. The head of the cooperative, Roman Cybulski is proud to show off the machines that wash and package the apples, ''without the European Union, this building would not exist.'' Adhering to the EU has allowed them to open up to export all over western Europe, ''we sell to France and Germany, whereas before there were customs taxes, we sell to Greece, Bulgaria''.
