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.
“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.
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.
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