Since Saturday, April 15, Ukrainian wheat and other agricultural products are no longer welcome on Polish and Hungarian territory. Bulgaria is not far from following in their footsteps, as are Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. A meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of these countries came to the same conclusion: the zero-rated import of Ukrainian agricultural products ruins the local peasants, who are forced to sell at too low prices.

In addition, Ukrainian products do not meet European food safety standards. Slovakia seized 1,500 tons of wheat containing pesticides banned in the EU and Hungary destroyed more than 29 tons of Ukrainian corn containing toxins and GMOs – they are allowed in Ukraine. Kyiv has deemed these “unilateral measures” “inadmissible”. In principle, trade matters are an exclusive competence of the EU. The European Commission, which was taken aback by decisions announced this weekend, intends to first check the legal basis on which the Polish and Hungarian decisions were based before making a decision.

The Member States most affected by competition from Ukrainian products are waiting for general measures to be taken. In any case, this is the meaning of the Hungarian press release which will temporarily ban, until June 30, 2023, “the import of cereals and oilseeds originating in or coming from Ukraine, as well as several other agricultural products”: sugar , milk and milk products.

The “corridors of solidarity” that have been set up by Europe to extract cereals produced in Ukraine and send them to countries in the Middle East and Africa have not worked as expected. As the think tank Farm Europe points out, they mainly “led to an unprecedented flow of Ukrainian products to Eastern Europe”.

“This sudden and large influx has created tensions locally, as large quantities of grain have flowed into regions with limited storage capacities (compared to new needs) and significant logistical challenges to export them while storing and processing them. transporting local produce,” reads the Farm Europe study.

The UN, in a September 2022 report, had already reported that the Black Sea Initiative to export Ukrainian grain by sea had mostly served 47% rich countries – Spain, Italy, Netherlands… – and benefited only 27% to poor countries – Egypt, Iran, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Sudan…

Consult our file: War in Ukraine