CEE Regional Seminar in Warsaw November 8-9, 2007

Changing Agri-Food Markets - Impacts upon Small-Scale Farmers

Regional Seminar of Regoverning Markets Project "Changing Agri-Food Markets - Impacts upon Small-Scale Farmers" took place at Warsaw University on November 8-9, 2007. The major objective of the seminar was to discuss the results of the Regoverning Markets projects in Central and Eastern Europe with special reference to the studies and survey completed in the Polish dairy sector.

35 scientists, business and public sector representatives from 12 countries (Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom) participated in the event. The seminar was jointly organized by the University of Warsaw Regoverning Markets Team and the regional Coordination of the project at Corvius University of Budapest.The Warsaw University provided an outstanding venue and first class organization .

During the first day of the Seminar the  results of the research on Polish dairy sector were presented. The detailed results of the research in Poland were presented by the Polish team led by Prof Jerzy Wilkin and Dominika Milczarek. The main conclusions and discussion concerned the determinants of market channel choices of local dairy farms and possibilities of small-scale farmers' inclusion into modern market channel. Access to funds were found to be the most important factor allowing for necessary adjustments. In addition, the role of intermediaries - dairy companies - in restructuring at the farm level was stressed.

The programme of the second day included examples of innovative practices in connecting small-scale producers with dynamic markets. Results of research within Regoverning Markets project in Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia were presented.In the last session the situation of small-scale farmers in Moldova and Armenia were presented and discussed. These presentations were supported by FAO. The presentations of the case studies were followed by vivid discussions emphasizing the needs to support small farmers cooperation and inclusion to the new market chanels.The importance of external support  was an overall conclusion.

The seminar program included a presentation of Bill Vorley on the preliminary outcomes of the overall project. Csaba Csaki outlined the main global conclusions of the country specific case studies.The seminar concluded by a panel discussion based on the remarks of Bill Vorley ,Jerzy Wilkin ,Csaba Forgacs and Csaba Csaki.It was aggreed that the regional papers will be jointly published. The detailed programme of the seminar and links to the presentations are available here.