The major subject of the talks was the state of bilateral cooperation in the field of agriculture and the possibilities to strengthen it as well as the issue of employing seasonal workers from Ukraine in the Polish agri-food sector.

Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski stressed that workers from Ukraine enjoyed very good reputation among Polish farmers and thanks to the similar culture and language they could easily find jobs on Polish farms. He informed the Ambassador about the current conditions of employing those workers in agriculture, including the adopted “Guidelines of the MARD and CSI for agricultural producers employing foreigners for seasonal work in view of the spread of the SARS COV-2 virus”.

- We would like the citizens of Ukraine to willingly come to work in the Polish agri-food sector as the demand in the market is really high – added the Polish Minister.

Referring to the issue of citizens of Ukraine working in the agricultural sector in Poland, Ambassador Deshchytsia expressed his expectation that they would not be treated worse than the Polish workers. According to the Ambassador, it is necessary to open further crossings at the Polish-Ukrainian border so as to make border traffic smoother as well as to launch regular bus connection between our countries.

Ambassador Deshchytsia asked Minister Ardanowski about the potential interest of Poland in making investments in Ukraine. The Minister confirmed that Polish companies from the agri-food sector were considering such investments. He added that, in his opinion, it was necessary to broadly disseminate in Poland the information about the conditions of investing in the Ukrainian market.