Grain again

With Poland and other European countries threatening unilateral measures, Ukraine made an 11th-hour appeal to Brussels as a ban on Ukrainian grain imports in five eastern EU countries is set to expire on Friday (15 September).

“Ukraine expects the European Commission to keep its word and lift all restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports tomorrow,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement on Thursday (14 September).

“No form of continuing the ban is acceptable since it would undermine the single market, the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, and trust in EU commitments,” he added.

Ukraine has become entirely dependent on alternative EU export routes, called Solidarity Lanes, for its grain exports since Russia abandoned a year-old deal allowing Ukrainian grains to be shipped safely via its Black Sea ports in July.

As a result, farmers in neighbouring states – Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia – have faced increased competition and bottlenecks in their markets.

The European Commission announced “temporary preventive measures” in May that would ban such sales into the five Eastern European countries while allowing transit to non-EU markets, mainly in Africa.

These measures will expire on Friday, but no formal decision has been taken yet.
Meanwhile, EU frontline countries bordering Ukraine have threatened drastic measures if the European Commission does not renew its temporary import ban on Ukrainian agricultural goods.