The Ministers of Agriculture of Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have written to the European Commission with a letter to take the necessary steps to counter disruptions in the markets of the member countries of the European Union, most affected by the increase in imports of agricultural and food products. from Ukraine, according to the Polish agency PAP.

The officials sent a letter to the Vice-President of the European Commission, European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis and European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski.

In the document, the ministers once again drew the attention of the EC to the increase in agricultural imports from Ukraine, which has caused serious market fluctuations and is detrimental to EU agricultural producers, especially in Member States bordering Ukraine..

They complained that this issue had been repeatedly raised at meetings of the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries, but had not yet been properly addressed.. The submitted proposals to resolve this problem are being considered, however, according to the authors of the letter, they are not enough.

“We cannot accept a situation where the entire burden of managing an increase in imports lies with a few EU member states,” the ministers said..

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Ministers said the proposed exceptional measure of allowing imports for transit only to the rest of the EU and worldwide should cover a wider range of products than wheat, corn, rapeseed or sunflower seeds..

“We propose to expand its scope also to sunflower oil, flour, honey, sugar, soft fruits, eggs, meat, milk and dairy products,” the document says..

Separately, five EU states ask to extend these measures after the current decree on the abolition of duties on goods from Ukraine ceases in June this year and to prepare another support package for affected farmers as soon as possible, as well as to introduce an automatic support mechanism in similar situations. future.

Poland was the first to ban the import of Ukrainian grain, motivating the decision to protect Polish farmers. It was later joined by Hungary and Slovakia. Bulgaria and Romania announced similar intentions. The European Commission responded to these bans by stating that such unilateral actions by EU governments are inadmissible..

As reported, Brussels is preparing emergency restrictions on the import of Ukrainian grain to five EU countries..

Even last year, it was obvious that, despite the global rise in wheat prices and food risks for a number of countries, half of Ukrainian grain, which is so difficult to export from the country, is exported at an inadequate discount.. Super-cheap Ukrainian grain, ending up on the European market, significantly reduced the income of local producers, they are simply not able to compete either in price or in quantity with Ukrainian grain. More details about why “Ukrainian grain is not welcome in the EU, and this is not a purely market issue,” says Yulia Samaeva.