Farmers are switching to self-harvesting. The Ministry of Agriculture announces an investigation

Farmers all over Poland are giving up and inviting people to their fields. It is not profitable for them to harvest what they have sown or grown with considerable effort, because the purchase prices do not cover the production costs.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Stefan Krajewski suspects price collusion on the vegetable market. The case will be clarified by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and the National Center for Agricultural Support (KOWR). Farmers are preparing for a strike.

The watermelons did not reach the stores but were destroyed

Not everyone knows, but watermelons have been bred in Poland for several years. We are not a watermelon powerhouse, but their cultivation is mentioned among the directions that Polish farmers should start taking into account more often.

Watermelons do not have great requirements. All they need is high temperature and sun – from 22 to 28ºC. The watermelon harvest period is at the end of summer – the fruit is harvested from mid-August to mid-September. According to ARiMR data, from only 33 ha in 2020, the area of ​​watermelon cultivation in Poland increased to 338 ha in 2024. In 2025, some Polish farmers were forced to destroy these fruits.

“Production has increased to such a level that sales have been problematic since the beginning of September. Many intermediaries buy Polish watermelons, but it seems that the distribution network is not yet prepared for such a scale of production. There are even extreme situations in which unsold fruit had to be disposed of,” the vegetables website reported.

For vegetables, go to the farmer’s field, not to the store

Watermelons are no exception in 2025. In 2025, farmers growing peppers, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and many other vegetables and fruits will struggle with the question of what to do with the crops they have grown. However, Poles are starting to practice vegetable tourism in Poland. It is even worth renting a bus for this purpose.

Tomasz Jachacz from Zemborzyce Wojciechowskie near Lublin offered Poles to harvest peppers in his three-hectare field. At the beginning of the season, bulk cut peppers were accepted for approximately PLN 1.50. – If I pay people 30 groszy for cutting and hollowing out, and even earlier 20 groszy for collecting, I will have one zloty left. And during self-harvesting, people will collect their own crops and pay me PLN 2 per kilogram, says Tomasz Jachacz. In stores, peppers cost about PLN 10.

“I am selling cabbage – wholesale quantities – for pickling, Strukta variety. Self-harvesting. Price 20 gr/kg, about 1 hectare. Large, healthy heads,” wrote a farmer from Miechów, Lesser Poland, in the advertisement. There are about 100 tons of cabbage in the field. He will sell it to interested parties for only 20 cents per kilogram. In shopping centers they offer 25-30 groszy per kg, in the store you have to pay between PLN 2 and PLN 3.50. In one of the large chain stores – PLN 7.99 per head.

– There is no market, there is no one to sell. There is no one to harvest this cabbage. I am 59 years old, I have been a farmer since my childhood. So far, we have somehow managed to sell this cabbage. But it hasn’t been this bad for a long time. I hope I don’t have to destroy everything. The first people willing to buy it appeared – the owner of cabbage fields told the media.

Monika Olszak, a farmer from the Białe Błota commune in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, invites you to self-harvest onions. He has about 30-40 tons to donate. He will sell onions for only 60 cents per kilogram. In stores it costs from PLN 3 to PLN 4.50. So far, people have picked onions from an area of ​​about 1.5 hectares. Some even took half a ton for themselves and their families. Anna and Tomasz Sagan from Niewirków (Lublin Voivodeship) give away tomatoes for free. Anyone who wants can put a donation in a special box for the renovation of a historic church in the neighboring town of Dub.

The Ministry of Agriculture wants to catch the culprits

– It is an act of desperation and it is a credit to people that they are going to help farmers, because it is absolutely help for Polish farmers – former deputy minister of agriculture and KO MP Michał Kołodziejczak commented in the media – I will give myself a few more days to wait, and then I will come up with some proposals as Agrounia on what the ministry should do – declared Kołodziejczak.

Why this situation in Poland? – The market is completely deregulated. I get great, although bitter, satisfaction when I hear from food trade intermediaries: “Michał, when you were in the Ministry of Agriculture, we actually knew that there was someone else to be afraid of. That someone could bang his hand on the table, call supermarket representatives and force certain behaviors that would prevent farmers from buying food for half-free,” replied Michał Kołodziejczak.

The Ministry of Agriculture sees the problem. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Stefan Krajewski, the difficult situation on the fruit and vegetable market is the result of overlapping phenomena: climate change, lack of contracting and overproduction in some sectors. – Farmers react to trends, observe others and plant what seems profitable at a given moment. The problem is that in the absence of contracts and guaranteed prices, we have a deficit one season and overproduction the next. This causes a drop in purchase prices and market chaos, explained Stefan Krajewski.

In his opinion, the problem is the increasing import of products that are at the same time available on the domestic market. This happens, among others, with peppers, tomatoes or cucumbers. – Just a few years ago, no one thought about growing watermelons, peppers or tomatoes in the ground in Poland. Today, farmers successfully produce them, but the market has collapsed because goods from abroad arrive at the peak of the harvest. This disturbs the balance and takes away the economic sense of our production, emphasized the minister.

According to Krajewski, retail chains often use their dominant position to negotiate rates with local producers that are borderline profitable, and if no agreement is reached, they reach for cheaper imported goods. Most of the fruit and vegetable market in Poland is dominated by a few large retail chains, which actually decide on the price that will reach the producer and the consumer.

Gustaw Jędrejek, president of the Lublin Chamber of Agriculture, raises another clue in WP: – A large vegetable processing plant closed down in Germany. To save their market, they introduced large amounts of peppers, potatoes and other vegetables to their supermarket chains in Poland and Europe. Hence, the price became unfavorable for us.