News full text
Poles are ripped off by supermarkets
Polish farmers want to impose a new law that would force supermarkets to show production costs next to the price they charge. Polish Folk Party (PSL) that forms a government with Civic Platform (PO) is very enthusiastic about this idea.
- We have a huge crisis in agriculture. We have to do something with that – says Waldemar Broś, a chairman of National Dairy Products Cooperative’s Association.
According to farmers they are blamed for high food prices. However they are paid very little for their products. Farmers become around 8 to 16 per cent of a final price! Their product has to be processed, but still intermediaries and retailers earn the most.
- A kilogram of cheese costs 10 złoty (2.3 Euro), when it leaves a dairy. In the shop one has to pay 25 złoty (4 Euro) for the same cheese. A farmer sells his milk for 80 groszy (20 cent) per liter, and one has to pay a triple price in shops – farmers claim.
- No wonder that when farmers protest, customers ask themselves what do they (farmers-ed.) want – adds Rafał Mładanowicz, a head of National Cereal Producers Association.
However farmers do not want sympathy. They claim that shops would not dare to put up such high prices, when customers will know the difference between production and retail price.
- We try to force this law for sake of the whole society, but we know that there will be strong resistance from retailers side – farmers say.
