Warsaw, April 21 (AFP\/APP): Poland on Friday resumed transit shipments of Ukrainian grain and other food through its territory, partially lifting a nearly week-long ban imposed in response to protests from farmers.<\/p>\n
Poland and other EU countries bordering Ukraine imposed temporary bans on Ukrainian grain imports after farmers complained they were causing domestic prices to slump.<\/p>\n
Ukraine stepped up exports of agricultural and food products through EU nations after Russia’s invasion disrupted its usual Black Sea shipping route.<\/p>\n
Polish authorities said Friday the transit of dozens of Ukrainian food items — including sugar, meat, fruits and vegetables — is now permitted, but these products may not be sold on the country’s market.<\/p>\n
Poland on Saturday banned the entry of dozens of food items from the war-torn country, and Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria followed suit with similar moves.<\/p>\n
But Warsaw and Kyiv announced a deal Tuesday to allow the resumption of their transit through Poland, under strict checks and controls, involving placing electronic seals on the transports.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Polish customs officers will, for a week, escort the vehicles carrying exports.<\/p>\n
“We will let such a transport out of our sight only when it enters the port to be loaded, for example grain onto a ship, or leaves the Polish border,” Bartosz Zbaraszczuk, head of the Polish customs agency, told RMF24 radio.<\/p>\n
But protesting farmers said letting the transit flow might do further harm to Polish exporters.<\/p>\n
“This will not relieve the situation on our farms, in our warehouses,” Wieslaw Burzynski from the Pomeranian Chamber of Agriculture told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n
“Because grain and Ukrainian products will enter into competition with our products,” Burzynski said.<\/p>\n
In a bid to placate the farmers, the Polish government on Friday announced a fresh batch of farming subsidies worth 10 billion zloty ($2.38 billion) and urged the European Union to approve the measures.<\/p>\n
“The authorisation must come from the European Commission so that a European clerk does not knock on the farmer’s door somewhere and demand the return of the payment,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference.<\/p>\n
The populist right-wing government in Warsaw has accused the EU of failing to help farmers.<\/p>\n
But Brussels criticised the Polish government for imposing the import ban unilaterally, without consulting Kyiv or the EU.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the agricultural ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia sent a letter to the European Commission expressing their dissatisfaction that the brunt of the burden of managing the increase in imports falls on just a few member states.<\/p>\n
They called on Brussels to speed up efforts to provide additional help to their countries, according to a statement from the Polish ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Warsaw, April 21 (AFP\/APP): Poland on Friday resumed transit shipments of Ukrainian grain and other food through its territory, partially lifting a nearly week-long ban imposed in response to protests from farmers. Poland and other EU countries bordering Ukraine imposed temporary bans on Ukrainian grain […]<\/p>\n
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