ISSUES OF SHAPING THE AGRICULTURAL MARKET IN POLAND ON THE EXAMPLE OF MILK AND SUGAR MARKETS

The paper presents the development of the agricultural market in Poland, taking into account two periods of its existence. In the first period, encompassing the years from 1989 to 2004, the Agricultural Market Agency was the institution responsible for agricultural markets with an obligation of stabilising the market and protecting agricultural incomes. Following the accession to the EU, the Agency was granted new competencies and it received a status of a payment agency, which meant that the Agency was put in charge of regulating all agricultural markets. The article discusses the issues of milk quotas, introduced for the purpose of concentrating milk production in certain voivodeships, while at the same time achieving a reduction in the number of wholesale suppliers by 52.1%, and a decrease in the number of direct (individual) suppliers by 69.7%. Sugar market regulation resulted in a reduction of sugar plants from 78 to 18 (by 76.9%) and limiting the areas of sugar beet cultivation to selected regions.