“European Countries Restrict Imports of Ukrainian Agricultural Products: Latest News and Updates”

2023-04-18 07:02:24

Tons of cereals await their export abroad. In the Odessa Oblast, on July 16, 2022. ADRIEN VAUTIER / THE PICTORIUM FOR “THE WORLD”

Poland was the first to take the plunge, and its decision proved to be particularly radical: on Saturday April 15, during an electoral meeting, presenting a vast “plan of support for the Polish campaign”, the leader of the majority national conservative, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, announced that the government, which also massively supports Kiev’s war effort, was going to close its borders to all Ukrainian agricultural products until the end of June. Not only cereals, whose Polish silos are saturated, are concerned, but also almost all everyday consumer products, from fruit and vegetables to sugar, including honey and wine. On the same day, in the evening, the ordinance was published in the Polish official gazette and entered into force.

The announcement was made without any consultation with the European Commission, whose commercial policy is nevertheless of exclusive competence, nor with the Ukrainian party. The latter reacted quickly, believing that this decision had been made “in contradiction to past agreements”. The Hungarian authorities have followed in Poland’s footsteps by banning, over the same period, imports of cereals and oilseeds, among other things. Unlike Warsaw, however, Budapest continues to allow the transit of Ukrainian goods.

Slovakia, for its part, tolerates transit and prohibits the import of wheat and several other Ukrainian agricultural products from April 18 until further notice. The central European country had already issued a recent ban on the sale and processing of Ukrainian cereals stored on its territory, following the discovery of 1,500 tonnes of wheat contaminated with a pesticide banned in the European Union. Fearing becoming a bottleneck, Bulgaria has also announced that it is considering restrictions.

Wheat price collapse

Monday, April 17 in Warsaw, following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, the Polish Minister of Agriculture, Robert Telus, said that negotiations were underway to settle the issue of transit. “We are not opposed to transit, but we want to be 100% sure that these products, which destabilize our market, will not remain in Poland. We are working on an agreement that would guarantee that. » The Minister appealed to the European Commission to undertake “actions in this direction as soon as possible. » “We want to signal to the European Union that we also need changes on the question of customs duties”, he added.

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