Polish Minister of Agriculture stops foreign land-grab in Poland

UNITED RIGHT GOVERNMENT IS ON THE MARCH:
Poland's new farm minister Krzysztof Jurgiel has sacked the PSL-linked president of the State Agricultural Land Agency and stopped until further notice all tenders for the sale or lease of state farmland. The protection of farmland from (PO-style -- pol3) abuses was among PiS' election pledges. Some 200,000 hectares of Polish agrticultural land has been sold to foreign speculators through the use of Polish "słupy" (frontmen). That isn't as bad as Hungary where a million hectares have fallen into foreign hands.

naszdziennik.pl/ekonomia-polska-wies/147575,zakaz-sprzedazy-panstwowej-ziemi-rolniczej.html

In May next year new laws will come into effect to stop private land being sold to speculators, land prices should stabilize / fall, which will help our farmers .

I think these słupy" (frontmen) should forfeit the land they hold on behalf of a foreign speculator.

It is a good news and I support it even though I personally stand to loose on those regulations.

let us hope that brave minister won`t be destroyed

Have you been to Poland recently Polonius. You don't have a clue.

The Beskidy and that upland area south and east of Krakow have been raped by indiscriminate housing. And if the price is right, you can build where the **** you want.

Guaranteed.

Who ruined the Polish countryside? Foreigners? Do us a favour. {Dougpol bursts sides laughing that you could be so stupid as to believe the ministers' xenophobic hyperbole}

This was about fake tenders used to transfer farmland into foreign hands. Many things have destroyed the land to mention only America's Smithfield Foods contaminating the soil and atmosphere with a huge volume of pig waste. And the urban sprawl (indiscriminate housing development) is another thing that should be curbed or restricted to protect the country' shrinking natural habitats.

It's not urban sprawl. It's worse. It's extension of villages in what once were semi-remote areas, all along the escarpments. Everywhere. Too late. The countryside of southern Poland is ruined. Kaput. You couldn't make it up, and all Poles should be held accountable.

Dougpo I agree urban planning in Poland needs a serious shake up.

Hundreds of thousand of acres are currently held by investors who are happy taking EU money for keeping the land fallow and waiting for the prices to rise then to make a tidy profit on their investment.

If this land was used to develop sustainable woodland or to plant crops for bio fuel production (If traditional farming is not financially viable) this would go some way to reduce Poland's dependency on Coal. I do not understand why the EU pay these subsidies to speculators when it could be used as an incentive for cleaner sustainable fuel production.

Cough cough - remember the Rospuda valley, an SSI, and what Kaczynski said about that? Or should we remind PIS voters? He said the equivalent of "It's wetland and what is the fuss? Poland has plenty of it...."

And now PIS are going to give us a lecture on the environment. Have they been to college in these last 9 years? All well and good, but Polish history tells us that basically money will out.

My my aren't you off-topic by definition? Maybe derailed would be a more accurate description.

What? Moi? The minister is ******** about Poland land use and foreign involvement (What he calls speculation and others might simply see as investment). There was the suggestion that this harms agricultural policy and is land grabbing.

I was pointing out that Poles can do plenty of damage when left to their own devices, and the ministers' priorities would be better served on chasing all the illegal builders who gave backhanders to local government, and pulling their houses down.

Then there would be more agricultural land again. Problem solved!

Dude, you are so clueless. He was talking about breaking the law illegally buying up the farmland, which was happening over the years and PO "government" was looking the other way (while PSL operatives were very likely often involved in the process). It's about crime, not his personal opinion on anything.

So? I was making the point that agricultural land is rountinely changed to "recreational land" and onto "building or development land" at the blink of an eye, or at least was in the past.

Where's the beef? So foreign concerns bought agricultural land? All those land deals are illegal, but not when Poles are doing the deals? I smell another bout of rabid (and amusing) xenophobia here:)

So your point was totally off-topic.

K is not God and not everyone has to know about ecology. That's where we differ. To you the Tusk-Kopacz clique could do no wrong. At least no-one recalls you criticisng any of their policies. Whatever the case, indiscriminate development causing urban, industrial or recreational sprawl at the expense of pristine or at least natural habitats should not be tolerated regardless of who will be lining their pockets.

Agreed! It's a little late for that though in Podkarpacie and Podlasie.


No. Alleged crime. Probably jealous that he didn't get his filthy hands on it first?

Well, Podlasie with its primeval Puszcza still must have some redeeming traits as it was chosen by the French film-makers of "Les saisons" as one of the world's most unique pristine habitats. I'm no dendrologist, but they felt it was reminsicnet of the virgin woodlands that covered Europe thousands of years ago.

And who destroyed them: greedy, blood-sucking capitalist slime!

It's been happening all over "Eastern Europe", even your beloved EU issued some reports on that as far as I remember.

It boils my blood but it's true, Polish farm land is in the hands of many foreigners who will do with it who knows what, I would urge Polish people not to buy from farmers owning those farms and to only buy from Polish farm owners. Great move by Krzysztof Jurgiel, finally, I was counting on that as PiS has always stood up for farmers but not always executed its promises.

What a difference if the land is bought by Polish or foreign investor? Land cannot be taken away and stays where it stays. State policy should rather focus on proper land taxation to boost better land utilisation rather on implementing barbarian limits on free land sale. Last changes in agriculture land sale regulations was farmers party PSL (rather should say farmers trade union) gesture to get more farmers votes than anything else.

You can urge all you want, but the average Pole is price-conscious and is always going to buy from the foreigner if he can offer a better price, which usually he can due to modern farming methods.


Let's see...they might...farm with it?

Delph LOL "Let's see...they might...farm with it?" only if the EU lets them start farming instead of paying subsidies not to .

Are you dreaming? Polish framing methods are advanced, if anything it goes down to marketing and often than not foreigners sells to his home country as an ecological food. Those who are indeed farming and not speculating that is.

A Polish Agriculture minister said (a few years back) Poland could at least double its food production with modern, big farms.


Polish farmland isn't very cheap and the EU subsidy is small (200pln per acre), any capitalist would understand that buying Polish farmland is a lousy investment, unless you farm it.