A cider a day will keep the Russian bear away
A Polish Minister has an idea: What to do with excess apples? Well, turn them into cider. In its spat with Europe over sanctions, Russia on 1 August 2014 officially closed its borders to Polish fruit and vegetables, depriving farmers and exporters of a market worth more than EUR 300 million last year.
Apples accounted for nearly 90 percent, with Poland having recently overtaken China as the world’s largest exporter of the fruit. The Polish Ministry of Agriculture said over a third of Poland’s annual apple production of 3million tons is sent abroad, with around 700,000 tons going to Russia alone.
Moscow blamed “repeated sanitary infringements by Polish farmers” for its import ban on apples. This spurious justification is nothing new. In 2006, when Russia wanted to punish upstart members of its ex-Soviet backyard like Georgia and Moldova for “going west”, it imposed import bans on their popular wines.
In the light of these, Russia’s recent embargo on Polish apples and veggies is widely seen as a tit-for-tat because Poland is a staunch supporter of the Ukraine in its fight against pro-Russian separatists and Warsaw has pushed within the European Union for tougher sanctions on Russia.
Polish farmers are sure to take a hit, although Poles, in reaction to the ban, have set up their own social media platform to urge fellow countrymen and –women to eat more apples, using the tagline ’Eat Polish Apples’ #jedzjablka. On Twitter prominent faces can be seen eating the fruit.
The Polish government, in an effort to limit the fallout on the coalition that includes the Peasants’ Party, is scrambling to support the farmers. Marek Sawicki, the Minister of Agriculture, said in early August that he would ask the government to scrap taxes on cider production until the end of the year and talk to the Ministry of Health about lifting a ban on cider advertising.
From what we hear, the Ministry of Agriculture is pushing towards the possibility for advertising cider, in the same way as beer. However, the Ministry of Health is against this proposal. It is believed they will have to reach an agreement somehow, but this requires a change to the law on the prevention of alcoholism, which could be tough.
When it comes to taxation, market observers say that the Polish government could easily change the rate to 0 (and not suspend the taxes) like it is done in many other European countries (e.g. Spain, Austria, Portugal), thanks to an EU directive.
At the moment, there is an internal “battle” raging among different ministries (Finance, Economy, Agriculture, Health) over the appropriate measures to the ban. But once the Russian embargo makes a more palpable impact in the coming weeks, more concrete decisions will be taken.
Cider accounted for less than 1 percent of the country’s alcohol sales last year, even after almost tripling to about 20,000 hl from 2012. Poles drank 37 million hl of beer and 264.3 million litres of vodka in 2013, according to the International Wine & Spirit Research in London.
Even without the tax suspension the country’s cider production could surge to over 100,000 hl this year, according to the Warsaw-based Polish Council of Winemaking.
It seems that growth in the cider category will come for sure. The question is the scale, and this will again depend on the availability and “mood for cider”.
