IMPORTANCE OF RAW MATERIALS FOR SUGAR INDUSTRY IN POLAND

Poland's access to European Union was preceded, as far as the sugar industry is concerned, by a number of legal solutions, which have permanently introduced changes to the sugar industry itself as well as to the national sugar market. The restructuring changes were started in August 26th 1994, by the Act of regulating the sugar market and privatization in the sugar industry (1). The limited amounts of sugar production were introduced then, the task of the whole process being the stabilization of sugar supply on a level compatible with its demand as well as adaptation of the Polish legal regulations to the European ones. According to the Act, the Council of Minister determined the amounts of the produced sugar: A - to be used in Poland, B - for export with subsidies, C - for export without subsidies. The amounts were divided between the sugar companies and the remaining sugar factories on the basis of the product of the average daily processing of sugar beet and the sugar factory's efficiency of the last three campaigns (Gonet, 2004). The successive years brought novelisations of the Act. The first one was introduced in November 20th 1996(2), however, fundamental changes were introduced in June 21st 2001(3). The latter brought the regulations of the national sugar market closest to the ones implemented in the European Union (Gonet 2004). Currently European legal acts are in force, among others the directive of the European Council 1260/2001 of June 19th 2001 (4), complemented by a detailed Directive of European Council 314/2002 of February 20th 2002 (5).