Law change holds up Polish imports
company that imports wine and spirits into Poland. He has cancelled
the company's planned accession celebrations tonight on account of
the bureaucratic nightmare currently turning the company on its
head, reports Simon Pitman.
Racke had planned a 'big' celebration' to welcome in the new opportunities opened by EU membership. But the last few months have been so fraught, the party spirit has fizzed out, he says.
"Everything is such a mess in Poland at the moment because none of the administrative procedures are in place yet,"Morawiecki said. "The customs authorities are not ready at all and the legislation necessary to import food and beverage items is just not in place."
Morawiecki is not blaming the EU. It is primarily the fault of the Polish government, for not implementing the necessary procedures in time, he claims. Although parliament voted through the necessary legislation for imported goods, it was not implemented soon enough at a ministerial level.
"Everything has been left to the last moment. We wanted to apply for our new import license but nothing was ready so it was delayed. On a bureaucratic level no one seems to know what they are doing yet because they have not received adequate training or notification."
This delay is injuring Morawiecki's €5 million a year business. With wines and spirits held up in warehouses, turnover is down by at least 30 per cent in April and the shortfall is expected to be just as great in May.
"The problem is that no one in the Polish customs authority knows how to clear goods, so all the time the stock pile of our wines and spirits is growing. But this is not only impacting European wines and spirits, it is having an effect on our non-European imports as the legislation has changed for imports from outside the European Union, too."
Information is scarce on when the backlog might get cleared. But industry observers suggest it will take at least another three weeks for the import regulations to be fully implemented, and for the process of unlocking the blocked imports to begin.
Racke has also seen sales revenues fall as consumers await a lowering of spirit prices after accession, as import tariffs are brought into line with EU norms.
However, this may later turn out to be a boon. Once the bureaucratic teething problems are fixed the lower tax on imported spirits is expected to bring companies such as Racke a significant boost.
"There is no question that on a long-term basis accession will accelerate the market for imported spirits and wines in Poland," said Morawiecki. "I expect that by the summer our sales will be really starting to pick up and that by Christmas things will be very much better."Meanwhile, Racke is one drinks company that will not be rolling out the barrels for 1st May.
