Ukraine in last-ditch appeal for EU to end grain import curbs

BRUSSELS — Ukraine has appealed to the European Union not to extend temporary import curbs on its grain and oilseeds that are due to expire on Monday, saying that doing so would play directly into the hands of Russia.

The EU in late April effectively ratified import curbs imposed by a group of Eastern member countries led by Poland in an attempt to clear a massive supply glut that built up after Russia invaded Ukraine last year and blockaded the agrarian nation’s main export route to world markets via the Black Sea.

The issue has driven a wedge through the EU, with heavyweight Germany accusing the Eastern states of threatening to “break Ukraine’s neck” with the import bans and demanding that Brussels get its act together and establish viable overland export routes so that Ukrainian exports can reach countries of the Global South where they are most needed.

At a European summit in Moldova, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had urged the EU “to unconditionally lift export restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural products.”

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi, who attended a meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels this week, told POLITICO there was a “very big risk” that Russia would take advantage of discord in the bloc to again disrupt a United Nations-brokered deal that has allowed some Ukrainian shipments through the Black Sea.

“It is like a present to Moscow,” the Ukrainian farm chief said in an interview.

Ukrainian officials expressed concern that the EU would indeed roll over the import restrictions, but as of Thursday evening “no decision has been taken yet,” European Commission spokesperson Miriam García Ferrer said.

Against the grain 

Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine and blockade of its Black Sea ports in February 2022 trapped grain stocks in the country — normally one of the world’s biggest exporters — and pushed up global food prices. 

In order to stave off a worsening world food crisis, the EU set up overland corridors through Eastern Europe in March; and in July, the U.N. and Turkey brokered a Black Sea grain deal to allow safe passage for some Ukrainian shipments through the Black Sea. 

Since the EU’s so-called solidarity lanes were established, imports of Ukrainian agricultural products into Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have soared, distorting local markets. Farmers and commodity traders, eyeing rising food prices, also hoarded grain, growing the glut. 

On April 15, the governments of these countries, led by Poland, introduced bans on certain Ukrainian agricultural exports, or, in the case of Romania, threatened to. The Commission then negotiated a compromise that effectively legalized the bans — at least temporarily — and offered the countries cash. Poland, the homeland of EU Farm Chief Janusz Wojciechowski, is the biggest recipient.

Wojciechowski said at Tuesday’s Agrifish Council that the restrictions should be extended “at least” to October, to allow the five countries to clear the decks. 

“We need to prolong these measures, best to the end of the year but minimum to the end of October,” he told journalists. “Without these measures, we will have a huge problem during the harvest in these frontline member states.”

Of great import

While imports of Ukrainian agricultural products into Poland and the other four countries have increased, Ukraine’s Solskyi said Wojciechowski is not telling the full story when he talks about Poland’s hard-done-by farmers. 

In 2022, Ukraine exported about €7 billion worth of agricultural products to neighboring countries — around half of which was grain, said Solskyi. “But at the same time our neighbors increased their exports of agricultural goods [by] €18 billion.” 

Ukraine’s exports meanwhile are expected to fall by about 40 percent this year.

Pointing the finger, Solskyi said that Wojciechowski’s push for the extension was driven by Polish domestic politics.

“When you talk about increasing exports from Ukraine, you have to talk about other important situations,” he said, referring to drought-stricken countries like Spain and Portugal that rely on Ukrainian grain to make up for their own supply shortages. “Wojciechowski is a commissioner for all of Europe, not just for one country.”

Solskyi’s criticism echoed that of German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir almost word for word, reflecting a widely held view in EU policy circles that the farm commissioner, a senior figure in Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, is backing his home team ahead of a general election due this fall.

Ukraine may be forced to impose retaliatory measures against Poland if the grain import curbs are extended, Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka said. “We may block imports of Polish cheese to Ukraine,” Kachka told POLITICO, adding, however, that “now is not the time for trade wars when we have actual war.”

The much bigger problem is the Black Sea grain deal, Solskyi explained.

Ukraine’s Black Sea ports remain the biggest export route for agricultural products; more than 30 million tons of grain have so far been exported under the initiative, easing pressure on global food prices and staving off starvation for countries in Africa and elsewhere bearing the brunt of the world’s food crisis.

Russia only agreed to extend the deal just before it was due to expire on May 18. Previously, after the EU’s compromise deal on the bans imposed by the group of five Eastern European countries came into effect, Moscow effectively halted it, said Solskyi, explaining that for more than 10 days “Russia didn’t approve any new vessels.”

An extension to the import restrictions risks a repeat. “We are absolutely sure that Russia is following this situation and they [will] try to use this situation,” Solskyi explained. “They are looking for any possibilities to make additional difficulties [for us].” 

Additional reporting by Sarah Anne Aarup and Leonie Kijewski.