“If farmers don’t go and work elsewhere, they fall into poverty,” says a Polish breeder

Between increasing costs and falling prices, European breeders are not getting by. Their fed-up has been expressed more and more strongly in recent weeks, particularly in Poland.

In Europe, farmers’ anger has exploded in recent weeks. In Poland too, breeders are protesting against rising production costs in the face of ever lower selling prices. But more than elsewhere, it is the competition from Ukraine, considered unfair, which weighs on Polish farmers.

Dorota Silkorska’s farm is located near Warsaw, the Polish capital. For almost ten years, she has been raising ducks, chickens, rabbits and goats there. Like many of her fellow farmers, she is no longer able to cover her costs. “For several years, the price of eggs has only been falling, while all production costs are increasing. For example, the organic eggs that I produce should cost 70 cents each, but they only cost 30 today”describes the farmer.

Farmers falling into poverty

A drop in sales prices aggravated, according to her, by the massive arrival of Ukrainian products on the market since the start of the war. Unable to face this competition judged “disloyal”some preferred to leave the country. “If farmers don’t go and work elsewhere, they fall into poverty”says Dorota.

“I know a farmer who had to go to Norway to earn money so that his family could continue to live on the farm. This is the reality in the Polish countryside”

Dorota Silkorska, Polish breeder

at franceinfo

This evening, Dorota knows that she will work with her animals until midnight and will only allow herself four or five hours of sleep in her wooden chalet, where the temperature is around 0°C. On Wednesday, Polish farmers planned a national mobilization to make their demands heard. She will have neither the time nor the means to join the processions.