Poland will temporarily stop all Ukrainian grain imports to mitigate its impact on prices, the Polish and Ukrainian governments announced on Friday, April 7th, following mass protests by Polish farmers angered by the steep decline in grain prices.
The announcement was made by Poland’s new Agriculture Minister Robert Telus, who assumed office a day earlier after his predecessor, Henryk Kowalczyk, resigned amid the mass demonstrations, along with his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Solskyi.
“The Ukrainian side has proposed to severely restrict, and for the moment even stop completely, grain arrivals to Poland,” Telus told journalists at a joint press conference after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart at a border crossing between the two countries. “Transit will be allowed but will be closely monitored in both countries so that Ukraine grain doesn’t stay in Poland,” he added.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Solskyi, for his part, said: “The situation is difficult for both Ukrainian and Polish farmers. We all understand who is to blame, but we have to solve this problem. The Ukrainian side will refrain from exporting wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower to Poland until the new season.”
He added that Ukrainian and Polish officials would meet again in the coming days to ensure the transit of grain destined for other countries.
“We are counting on the most constructive position of the Polish side regarding the transit of Ukrainian grain to Polish ports and ports of other EU countries,” Solskyi said.
Substantial quantities of Ukrainian grains, which happen to be far less costly than those produced in the European Union, have remained in Eastern and Central European countries due to logistical troubles, causing prices to plummet and local farmers in these countries to take the financial hit.
Like Polish farmers, those in several other European countries have also been disproportionately hard-hit by an influx of cheap Ukrainian grain.
On March 31st, the prime ministers of five Central-Eastern European countries—Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia—wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging the executive body to allocate additional aid for farmers in these countries affected by these imports from Ukraine.
Romanian farmers, on Friday, April 7th, protested in the capital and across the country in long convoys of tractors. Meanwhile, in neighboring Bulgaria, grain-producing farmers blocked border crossings with their farming vehicles.
“Bulgaria is in solidarity with Ukraine, but a local glut is being created on the agricultural market, because instead of export corridors, our countries are becoming warehouses,” Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev warned earlier this year.
Source : European Conservative
