In 10 years, since their entrance into the EU, Poland has received €40 billion in European farming subsidies. According to a recent study, three quarters of Polish farmers have a positive view towards the Union.
Poland is the world’s leading producer of button mushrooms. In Ozorow, 100 km from Warsaw, on ”Mushroom Paradise” farm, 180 employees of which many are Ukrainian immigrants, work for about €500/month. The owner, Jazub Sztandera, a young 33 year old with a law degree who has turned to farming says, ”I can say it: Thank you to the European Union for the subsidies given to us. In 2008 we started with a farming area of 5,000 metres squared. We have developed and multiplied our acreage by 6 times. This year we have almost reached 30,000 metres squared.”
The mushrooms is an important segment of agricultural production in Poland. The Polish mushroom industry underwent dramatic organisational and technological changes since 1990’s. They started to implement the modern technology of mushroom growing technologies from Ireland and The Netherlands. They started to extremely develop the industry by Dutch way. After the EU connection started to change the III. phase composting, developments for higher quality, farm equipments and integration of growers for better usage of financial supports.
In 2013 are more than 30 groups of producers, built logostic centers (for better offer to Russian and German market). In Poland there are around 1000 mostly modern Dutch type mushroom farms, 90 farms having more than 10.000 m2, 6 farms more than 40.000 m2. The Polish mushroom industry’s Agaricus production is around 285.000 tonnes/year with 304 million € turnower. In 2014 the expectations are more than 150.000 m2 new growing area, 2000 tonnes III. phase compost per week, and 335.000 tonnes/year total production.
