Polish farmers should be very grateful to the World trade Organization - after WTO Russia's accession Polish products export to Russia rose up abruptly and will continue to grow this year rapidly.

Newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on 11.02.2013 that over the 11 months of the 2012 Polish products sale to Russia grew by 30% in comparison with the similar period of 2011 and reached 1.3 billion dollars. Analysts consider to continue increasing in 2013.

Two years ago Russia was the 6 th-largest market for the export from Polish but in 2012 moved to the 4 place taking 6% of Polish sales.
Poland obtains several important advantages to capture share in the Russian market: geographically it is closer to Russia than Western Europe rivals and its products are basically cheaper than in the richer countries of the EU produced. In spite of Polish products are not perceived by its Western neighbors, in Russia and Ukraine they are purchased positively due to extensive advertising campaigns in these countries also.

Accession to the WTO has reduced customs duties to be imposed on foreign food products in Russia and it has become harder to block the import of food to Russia now.

Russia began to restrict the import of Polish meat in 2004 immediately after Poland had joined WTO. In 2005 Russia banned the import of vegetables. Moscow explained these measures as the questions of security products and gave examples, when the meat was exported from Poland with forged certificates. Poland announced this ban on the import the Russian political game, aimed to weak the position of Poland in the EU. Meat and vegetable embargo deprived Polish sales for $ 500 million annually. The ban was canceled in 2007 after the centrist Donald Tusk had replaced Jaroslaw Kaczynski on the post of Prime Minister. In 2011 Russia banned the import of vegetables in some EU countries, including Poland, due to E.coli strain.

In recent weeks Poland has faced a wave of criticism on the suspicion that the Polish slaughterhouse add horse meat in the meat for UK and Ireland hamburgers. The Polish authorities and meat manufacturers deny, however Poland in the Irish and the British press has received a lot of unflattering comments.