Sunflower seeds pile up in his barn without finding a buyer. Blame it on the competition at bargain prices for Ukrainian cereals, plagues Angel Voukodinov, a Bulgarian farmer whom the latest announcements from Brussels have not appeased.
“We have nothing against the Ukrainians” but the current situation is unsustainable and “the financial aid offered by the European Union to compensate for our losses is a joke!” Says the sixty-year-old, interviewed by AFP .
From Poland to Romania, via Slovakia and Hungary, thousands of farmers are standing up against the influx of wheat and other foodstuffs from kyiv.
“There are no more outlets,” laments manager Danka Marincheshka, who works with Mr. Voukodinov on the family farm in Saedinenie, in central Bulgaria.
“Where are we going to store the new crop that’s coming?” she wonders.
This small country, a major producer of sunflower oil, received some 940,000 tonnes of seeds from kyiv last year, half of what Ukraine exported to the EU.
Romania comes second with nearly 360,000 tonnes. At the beginning of April, its farmers took out their tractors to block the border posts, alongside their Bulgarian counterparts.
“The government and the European authorities have been unfair to us,” reacted union activist Florentin Bercu. “Contrary to their promises, a large part of the grain that was simply supposed to pass through our territory has remained stuck here.”
The same wind of anger in Poland, agitated in recent weeks by demonstrations which led to the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture.
In the wake of the Russian offensive, the EU suspended in May 2022, for one year, customs duties on all products imported from Ukraine.
And the Twenty-Seven had organized themselves to allow this country to export its grain stocks to Africa and the Middle East, “corridors of solidarity” after the closure of the maritime routes by the Black Sea.
But instead of a simple transit, neighboring European states have seen maize or wheat accumulate on their soil, against a backdrop of logistical problems and weak infrastructure.
“Nobody cared what was going on,” said Marin Iliev, who represents grain producers in the Bulgarian region of Plovdiv. “Small streams have become big rivers and prices have collapsed,” he sums up.
After approaching 870 euros per tonne in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine, sunflower prices have now fallen to around 360 euros, which does not cover production costs, explains Mr. Iliev. Especially since at the same time, fertilizer prices have exploded.
For experts, however, farmers have been caught in their own trap.
“Why didn’t they sell their crop before? In 2022, they dragged their feet expecting even higher prices,” accuses Nikolay Valkanov of the InteliAgro think tank.
Their customers therefore “logically” decided to turn to Ukrainian cereals flooding the market.
“We have become hostages to an aristocracy of big operators,” criticizes the analyst.
Faced with the discontent, the European Commission granted an initial envelope of 56.3 million euros to support the most affected operators, before proposing this week to release an additional 100 million.
“Brussels is trying to contain the indignation but the uncertainty persists,” said Marin Iliev.
Admittedly, Sofia, like Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava, flew to the aid of their farmers by unilaterally prohibiting all imports but maintaining the transit authorization.
Only Bucharest refrained from such a drastic measure.
But all are calling for a lasting solution at EU level and discussions are underway before a meeting of agriculture ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.
“As soon as there is a concrete proposal, the Hungarian government will naturally be ready to change its position,” commented Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, on Thursday.
“But it is unacceptable that the internal market is being destroyed by Ukrainian grain which was supposed to prevent famine in Africa!” he said.
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21/04/2023 16:56:05 – Saedinenie (Bulgarie) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP