Food prices unlikely to fall next year says agriculture minister

The Polish agriculture minister has said that food prices will not fall next year, and that the goal is not to let them grow too quickly.

Having admitted that the growth of prices of food as well as energy and raw materials had been caused by the war in Ukraine, Henryk Kowalczyk told PAP.PL on Friday that "unfortunately, food prices do not depend only on farmers as it is the cost of energy which has the main impact on them."

Kowalczyk said that the Polish people did not have to worry about the country's food security as Poland was a huge food producer and exporter.

"Last year's food exports totalled nearly EUR 40 billion," Kowalczyk said, adding that this year's exports were even larger.

"This means that we have reserves," he said.

Referring to doubts voiced by Polish farmers about Ukrainian grain coming to Poland and its possible impact on grain prices in Poland, Kowalczyk said that, in fact, such a problem did not exist.

"Over 2 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain entered Poland by the end of September while Poland's grain exports exceeded 6 million tonnes in the same period, which is threefold bigger," Kowalczyk concluded.