In 2022 and 2023 farmers protested because wheat prices dropped from 1,600 PLN to 1,100 PLN. In response, the PiS government prepared subsidies for grain of over 3,000 PLN per hectare, which gave a price of 1,400 PLN per ton of grain. Today the price of a ton of wheat is around 700 PLN. Farmers are dissatisfied, but the government has no intention of reacting. “If the government does not start acting, Polish agriculture will have to shut down,” said Tomasz Obszański from Solidarity of Individual Farmers (NSZZ RI Solidarność).
According to Polish farmers, current grain market prices are below production costs. Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski says that farmers are selling a ton of grain for the same money as 20 years ago. The price of 700 PLN per ton seems even more dramatic given that in 2023 farmers were already protesting, claiming that 1,100 PLN was the break-even point.
Those times are well remembered by Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, who criticized the Law and Justice (PiS) government for failing to react.
“Back then the price of wheat – let’s take this basic type of grain – fell from about 1,500-1,600 PLN per ton to 1,100 PLN. The opposition, PSL, were tearing their hair out, catastrophe. What is the current government doing now? Why aren’t they reacting? At the moment the price of wheat, good wheat, is around 700-800 PLN. And the explanation from Minister Krajewski and everyone else in turn: ‘Well, too bad, that’s what the market decides, after all we are part of the global market.’ This is a bit like Bieńkowska, who once said: ‘Sorry, that’s the climate we have,'” said Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski in an interview with the portal Cenyrolnicze.pl.
All the more incomprehensible, then, are the current demands of the agricultural chambers. They have appealed to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to apply to the European Commission (EC) for permission to launch a compensation system. The agricultural self-government is proposing subsidies of at least 200 PLN for each ton of grain sold. Altogether this would amount to around 900-1,000 PLN, that is, prices at which production was already unprofitable in 2023.
According to former Minister of Agriculture Robert Telus, the agricultural chambers are playing a political game with the ministry. “The agricultural chambers are in the ministry’s pocket. This proposal was created so that the minister can pose as a bigger benefactor and give half that amount. In reality, I have the impression that the government thinks it has managed to pacify and intimidate farmers. But this will only last until farmers start demanding their due,” said Robert Telus, former minister in the PiS government.
Read more in today’s edition of Gazeta Polska Codziennie!
#GazetaPolskaCodziennie – Twój niezbędny przewodnik po najważniejszych wydarzeniach z kraju i ze świata. Jeśli szukasz rzetelnych wiadomości, pogłębionych analiz i interesujących artykułów, to czwartkowe wydanie #GPC jest właśnie dla Ciebie!
— GP Codziennie (@GPCodziennie) August 27, 2025
📰📲 https://t.co/5oUNtNfQBb pic.twitter.com/sRl2wOFdzY