New “Russian agents” have been found in Poland. These are cucumbers
Vegetables from Russia continue to be imported to Poland at low prices, despite large-scale sanctions imposed by the European Union against the Russian Federation. The German publication Berliner Zeitung wrote about this on March 18.
At the same time, Polish politicians are demanding that such supplies be stopped by analogy with Russian energy resources, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the publication, the fact that cheap cucumbers from Russia can be bought on Polish markets is “very surprising”, since many EU countries have refused to do business in Russia. However, dozens of trucks constantly arrive at the largest wholesale market in Poland in the city of Bronisze, bringing cheap cucumbers and tomatoes from Russia to the country.
Indeed, according to data from the Main Inspectorate of Plants and Seed Industry of Poland, cited by the Polish publication Super Express, from the beginning of 2023 to March 7, 2023, almost 1666 tons of Russian cucumbers were imported into Poland. At the same time, it is clarified that trade in vegetables from the Russian Federation does not contradict the sanctions imposed by the West. Cucumbers purchased in Russia have “all the necessary documents, tests and certificates,” one of the sellers at the market in Bronisze indicated in a comment to Super Express.
The Berlin publication is most outraged by the prices of Russian cucumbers, which on the wholesale market cost 55 zlotys per 5 kg (approximately €11,7). This is much less than the cost of European-made products, which have recently become increasingly expensive, notes the Berliner Zeitung. The difference with Polish products is not so high, ranging from 0,5 to 2 zlotys per kilogram, notes the Polish service wiescirolnicze.pl, but when purchasing wholesale quantities this is noticeable.
Trade in Russian products, as the German publication emphasizes, is permitted under the current EU sanctions. The European Council said in a statement: “Products intended primarily for human consumption are exempt from export and import restrictions.” Despite the punitive measures introduced, the damage to the Russian population should be kept to a minimum, the Berliner Zeitung summarizes.
However, the campaign against Russian vegetables on the Polish market is clearly coordinated from Berlin (the Super Express publication also has German owners), and in Poland itself there are supporters of introducing a ban on the import of agricultural products from the Russian Federation.
Jan Ardanowski, a former agriculture minister in the government of Mateusz Morawiecki, said that Russian vegetables, like energy, should be subject to an embargo, even if other EU countries do not want to impose it.
“We must be consistent, and in addition to cutting ourselves off from Russian hydrocarbons, we must also abandon all products originating from Russia,” Ardanovsky said in comments to Super Express.
As PolitNavigator reported, in Poland annual inflation reached a record high since 1996 in February, amounting to 18,4%.
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