'Subsidies drove me away from farming'

For more than 10 years Ludovit Posa, a former head of Polnobanka and under the communist era an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture, built his own business in the agrofood industry. He had good contacts from the times he worked for the bank and sufficient funds from selling his shares. Originally he planned to spend many years as an owner of one of the top businesses in the industry.

But today he is selling his network of grain warehouses and feed mills, Belar Group, which he used to own with his long-term partner, Pavol Vasek, to the Czech agrochemical group, Agrofert. To Belar they add bakeries, mills and poultry companies.

L. Posa claims that it was the higher EU subsidies which Slovak farmers have received over the last four years that had driven him out of the business. And if after Slovakia and Germany the antimonopoly office in Hungary also approves the transaction he will leave the business. He bought the companies he is selling today from funds after voucher privatization for far less money.

At that time the agrofood industry was neglected unlike the current situation when it is an important target of major acquisitions. The director explained that at Belar they had companies from various areas of the agrofood industry. These often were only short term investments.