KYIV: Kyiv aims to re-open food and grain transit via Poland as “a first step” to ending import bans at talks in Warsaw on Monday as countries halted grain from Ukraine to protect their local agriculture markets from an influx of supply.
Poland and Hungary announced bans on some imports from Ukraine on Saturday. Slovakia said on Monday it would do the same and other countries in central and eastern Europe said they were also considering action.
Some Black Sea ports were blocked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February last year and logistical bottlenecks trapped large quantities of Ukrainian grain — cheaper than that produced in the European Union — in Central European countries.
Local farmers say this has lowered prices and reduced their sales. Governments, under pressure to act, have asked the European Union for a response.
In Poland, the issue has created a problem in an election year for ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party that relies on rural areas for high level of support.
The export and transit bans also come as a deal to allow the export millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.
The combined impact of the bans and failure to agree an extension would strand millions of tonnes of grain inside Ukraine, a major agricultural producer that makes a substantial part of its gross domestic product from food sales.
“The first step, in our opinion, should be the opening of transit, because it is quite important and it is the thing that should be done unconditionally and after that we will talk about other things,” Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said before talks due in Warsaw.
“The ultimate goal is not that the import ban will be in force indefinitely, but to ensure that grain from Ukraine, which is to be exported, goes (where it is headed),” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told radio station RMF.
A senior EU official said EU envoys would discuss Poland and Hungary’s bans on Wednesday - after the bloc’s executive said on Sunday that unilateral action was unacceptable.
The official said low global prices and demand meant grain was staying in the bloc rather than being sold on.
— Reuters
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