Interfax's Interview

 Polish Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Marek Sawicki shares his view on prospects of the development of Polish-Russian relations in the agricultural sector and other areas in an interview with Interfax.

  In the Polish-Russian memorandum, the two sides agreed to set up a permanent group of experts from the Russian Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight Service Rosselkhoznadzor and Poland's Chief Veterinary Inspectorate. When could such a unit be established, how many people will work for it, and what will its remit be?

In my opinion, it is all about a technical group – at least that is what I understood. This technical group had already conducted initial negotiations that resulted in the signed memorandum. And those people, from the Polish side [...], will be directly responsible for incidents and imperfections regarding exports of agricultural products on the Russian market. There is no need to set up additional groups and commissions, unless the Russian side would like a special, permanent administrative group – of course, we are open to this idea.

 Getting back to the memorandum and the negotiations concerning the memorandum, if I remember correctly, with Minister [Alexei] Gordeyev [responsible for agriculture in Russia], we agreed that there is no limit to the number of production facilities exporting to Russia and that the Polish veterinary service will conduct inspections [required to gain access to the Russian market]. But, in my and Minister Gordeyev's absence, in Kaliningrad when he met with our experts, Russian Service for Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight President [Sergei] Dankvert negotiated additional controls on Polish production facilities – the move is of course against my agreement with Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev. I will intervene and we will discuss the matter just after January 8. When I submitted a proposal in Moscow in December to prolong inspections, Minister Gordeyev clearly said that there is no such need. [Minister Gordeyev] believes that the allowance of our production on the European market is proof that such exports could be exported to Russian markets. This, of course, demands clarification, and we will verify this as we go.

 Do these additional controls cover products or livestock?

 Unfortunately, the additional controls cover processing plants. Not products, not livestock, but processing plants. As I said before, the plants are allowed onto the market by our veterinary services and according to our procedures - this is enough to allow them [to enter] the Russian market.

 According to the agreement, the import of raw meat is taking place through just one border crossing, in Kaliningrad. Can we expect a wider opening of borders? Have you agreed on the time period after which other restrictions will be lifted, such as the need to inform the Russian veterinary services about the origin of the Polish meat every ten days?

These arrangements, as far as the origin [of the meat] is concerned, are being carried out only within the scope that our plants are obliged to maintain such a register. But we have clearly stressed that we cannot agree on exports from our plants being limited solely to the export of meat and its processed products from livestock bred and slaughtered in Poland. [...] We do not have the power to do this, and we do not expect from the Russian side that it will force the opening of additional border crossings.

If the Russian side thinks that one crossing is enough - and as we said before there is the second Ukrainian one - then we are inclined to accept that because we don't see a major problem here. [...] It is up to the Russian side to decide when it will be ready to open additional border crossings.

As far as the ban on plant products and fruits is concerned, the decision is expected to be announced in mid-January. How prepared is the Polish side for the January talks? What has already been arranged and what issues are still disputed?

At the moment, as far as phytosanitary certificates are concerned - that is regarding plant products - the problem goes deeper and lies in cooperation between Russia and the EU. This requires a wider agreement, because Russian restrictions do not apply solely to Polish production, but also EU production as a whole. We will discuss this issue on January 11, in Brussels. Experts, including Polish experts, will take part in the talks. We will see what the outcome of the talks will be, because maybe after these talks there will be no need for additional Polish-Russian talks. Maybe a wider agreement will be reached between Russia and the EU. And if additional clarifications and detailed arrangements are needed for the Russian side, we are ready. And again, the Russian side must state the questions, the conditions which we have to touch on. [...]

 There are nine companies producing fish powder in Poland. Some of them have not even tried to export to Russia. Does the Russian side intend to uphold its embargo on fish powder? Is it true that the European Union has confirmed that Polish fish powder contains animal proteins, which it is thought could potentially be a cause of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
 
 It is no secret that sometimes some faults in the production process have occurred and that human dishonesty and deviousness are limitless. We have institutions responsible for checks and controls. They did not catch [the company pointed to by Russia] but after a signal from Russia – I would like to emphasize this – the company, which had been producing [contaminated] fish powder, is no longer in production.

 We nevertheless have some problems with the utilization of animal bone meal. [...] We suspect that the animal bone meal, which is used in fertilizers, may sometimes be found in fish powder. We warned our producers to eliminate such practices and we will tighten controls. [...] Every confirmed case will be punished. For this we have the veterinary service but also the prosecutor's office.

The blockade will, therefore, be maintained?

 I think that some clarification is required from the Russian Agriculture Minister. If not by phone, certainly [we will talk about the issue] during the International Green Week in Berlin because, if I understand our [earlier] conversation correctly, the reopening of the Russian market also included fish products. And again – beef, pork and poultry gained approval by Mr. Dankvert. Now, curiously, the issue of fish products, including fish powder, has again been raised.

You recently mentioned the possibility of strengthening Polish-Russian cooperation in the plant breeding sector, among others. How do you see the perspectives for bilateral cooperation? What initiatives have already been prepared?

 We would like to talk about this [bilateral cooperation] in Berlin [during International Green Week]. We intend to prepare a proposal on behalf of Polish entrepreneurs active in the fields of animal and plant breeding. We also want to engage arboricultural enterprises. When I talked with the Russian minister, I said that I would like this cooperation to engage [Russian and Polish] capital so as to provide a guarantee of better stabilization in bilateral trade and, secondly, to strengthen our [Polish] breeding sector.

 Have Polish companies already voiced an interest?

 Yes, they are interested. We have already held a few meetings in the ministry. [...] They are really waiting for the next steps and among those steps should be a positive answer from the Russian side as well.

On January 1, a law came into force requiring an increase in the bio-component content in fuel to 3.45%. There is concern that provisions on lower excise tax for biofuels are still not in force because of a lack of acceptance from the EU.

 In this case we do not need any EU decisions. We have an EU directive on this issue; that is first [...] and secondly, there are the recommendations and mutual obligations of EU member states to reach a 20% share of renewable energy in the total European energy balance by 2020. This is a huge requirement. For the current year most countries are taking on obligations at the level of 4.25%, maybe even 4.75%, Poland is way behind on this issue [...] Last year we had a target goal [of 2.3%], which in my opinion, although I do not have the statistical data yet, Poland will not meet.

 I do not share the view that the EU demanded an immediate lowering of the [excise tax] rates [on biofuels]. The EU did expect us to provide it with information on excise tax breaks, while the Finance Ministry I think over-interpreted the regulations and reduced the higher excise tax breaks [...] the excise tax on bio-components used in Poland even after this reduction by [former Finance Minister] Zyta Gilowska's Finance Ministry is not a natural barrier to bio-fuel production. The barrier is the lack of interest on the part of fuel producers in buying spirits and rapeseed from Polish producers.

 We want to initiate such a discussion and prepare programs designed to establish powiat centers [at the second level of Polish administration, similar to a county] for renewable energy production, where it would be possible to use local waste and local production capacities, eliminating long-distance transport, to produce small amounts of energy in the form of biogas, bioenergy or contributing to a small segment of biofuels.

What would the processing capacity of such a powiat renewable energy center be?

 I think that in such a powiat renewable energy center we could produce energy which could supply a town of 10,000-12,000 inhabitants with heat and electric power.

 How many such centers could there be?

They could be in every powiat.

 In March you are going to a conference in the United States. How do you envision Polish-American cooperation in this field?

 This cooperation is of course possible, but the thing we could do is watch how the Americans do it. [...] Today the whole of Europe, as well as Poland, faces a great challenge – what to do in order to first, while producing renewable energy based on agricultural products, avoid increasing food prices, and second, how to replace the ever-more expensive import of soya and corn with domestic European production. [...] I will say honestly that I'm more interested in cooperating with our neighbors on this issue, including cooperating with Russia, than in cooperating with the United States. [...] Because it seems to me that it is not hard to transport spirits, or resources to produce spirits, between Poland and Russia.

Can we expect so-called ecological fuel to be cheaper than traditional fuel in the first half of this year?

In my opinion it could already be cheaper today, because with the current price of gasoline – I'm talking about pure petrol and pure spirits – the prices are comparable.

 We will end with a question about bird flu. Can the damage caused by H5N1 be estimated?

 It weighed heavily on the economy. The amount of compensation [for Polish poultry farmers] is still unknown, but it is already several dozen million [zloty]. It is still not possible, however, to calculate the economic costs of a collapse of the [poultry] market.

We will apply to the European Commission for a refund. [...] Today it is hard to tell how much we will get, but I'm sure that we will get back part of the costs borne by fighting bird flu.
 
 When could exports [of dairy products] be resumed?

 According to my estimates, if new outbreaks do not appear, then after January 20 – we should practically have a region free of bird flu by January 16 - I'm saying with [some days] in store. [...] The most recent time-frame obliges restriction related to the last outbreak of avian influenza, and this was prolonged [by the European Union] until January 16.

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