WARSAW – Five European Union countries will extend their ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect their farmers’ interests, their agriculture ministers said Wednesday, but food can still move through their land to parts of the world in need after Russia pulled out of a deal safeguarding Black Sea shipments.
The ministers of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria signed a joint declaration ahead of EU discussions on the matter planned next week in Brussels. The declaration said they support continuing to allow Ukraine's grain to move through their borders by road, rail and river to destinations where it is needed but will keep the import ban to their countries through 2023.
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“This coalition is not against anyone, not against Ukraine or the EU, it is in the interest of our farmers,” Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said after meeting with his counterparts in Warsaw, where they decided to push the ban beyond a Sept. 15 deadline.
Except for Bulgaria, all the countries border Ukraine, which faced a major blow Monday when Russia pulled out of a breakthrough accord brokered by the U.N. and Turkey to allow Ukrainian food to be shipped through the Black Sea to countries where millions are going hungry. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat, barley, vegetable oil and corn.
The five agricultural ministers and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who met with them, said Ukrainian grain previously got stuck in their countries, leading to a glut that drove down prices for their farmers, and they don't want to see that happen again.
The ministers urged the EU to work out mechanisms that will get Ukrainian grain and other food to their destinations without hurting the agricultural industry in transit countries.
“Today the EU should build proper law and infrastructure tools to regulate transport of Ukraine grain in the long term,” Telus said.
“We want to help Ukraine in the transit," he said.
EU commissioner for agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, a former Polish agriculture minister, said on Twitter in May that some 4.1 million tons of Ukrainian corn, barley and canola grain came to Poland from April 2022 through March 2023, with 3.4 million tons remaining there and only about 700 tons moving through.
Farmers launched protests and the countries passed unilateral bans in April without EU approval, threatening European unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU later struck a deal allowing the countries to temporarily prohibit some agricultural products from Ukraine and provide farmers more aid. The grain is allowed to move through to other markets in sealed and guarded transports.
Telus said the EU ban has bought “unexpectedly good effects to us all,” saying figures show a doubling of Ukrainian grain moving through Poland this year.
The Ukrainian Grain Association, meanwhile, has pushed to send more grain through the Danube River to neighboring Romania’s Black Sea ports, saying it’s possible to double monthly exports along that route to 4 million metric tons.
But Cezar Gheorghe, founder of Romanian grain analyst firm AGRIColumn, said that's “not possible.”
Between March 2022 and June 2023, some 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain passed through the Romanian ports of Constanta, Galati and Braila — the maximum that could be handled, he said.
“Ukraine will need to disburse also through Poland, Hungary, Slovakia — it is simple math,” Gheorghe said. “We will stand alongside Ukraine, but through our limitations."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said Tuesday that she was “deeply concerned about Russia’s move to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative," stressing that the "risk is that it brings food insecurity to so many vulnerable countries across the globe.”
“The European Union will, with all means, continue to work to ensure that food security for vulnerable people is given," she said.
More than 45 million metric tons of grain, oilseeds and other products have been exported through Europe, von der Leyen said.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, which was brokered in a bid to end a global food crisis caused by Russia's war in Ukraine, has allowed an additional 32.9 million metric tons to get to the world, according to the U.N.
Von der Leyen stressed that it was “important that the blocking of the Black Sea is stopped” and that exports can continue via that route.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that his government is working on solutions to keep exporting through the Black Sea despite Russia pulling its safety guarantees for ships.
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AP reporters Stephen McGrath in Sighisoara, Romania, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed.