Hours after the European Union ended a temporary ban on the export of Ukrainian grain and other products to five member states, three of them – Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – defied the bloc and said they would continue to ban Ukrainian grain from entering their borders are sold. .
As Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, struggles to ship its grain due to the Russian invasion, the European Union has opened up to tariff-free food imports from the country, a move that had the unintended consequence of undercutting prices in several countries . eastern EU member states. As part of an agreement designed to protect those countries, the European Union allowed some grain to pass through but banned domestic sales.
Brussels’ decision to let that deal expire at midnight on Friday has revived an issue that has threatened the European Union’s unity over aid to Ukraine. Hungary’s Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy announced an expanded ban that would include more products in a Facebook post early Saturday morning, saying “we will protect the interests of farmers.” Poland and Slovakia announced their bans on Friday.
Lawmakers in Bulgaria went the other way, agreeing Thursday to resume imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, The Associated Press reported, saying the ban had reduced tax revenues.
The EU ban, which was introduced in May and expired at midnight on Friday, covered the export of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The ban was a response to those countries’ concerns that a flood of cheap, tariff-free food imports from Ukraine would hurt their own farmers. All five had imposed strict restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports before the EU ban took effect, frustrating officials in Brussels and Kiev.
The backlash against Ukrainian grain imports from Europe’s former communist eastern countries was a rare and uncomfortable show of dissent on the continent after notable European support for Ukraine’s war effort for more than a year after the February 2022 full-scale invasion.
They are the latest wrinkle in a long list of Ukrainian grain problems as fighting has raged around Ukraine’s agricultural heartland and, after a massive explosion at the Kakhovka Dam, caused epic floods downstream and a punishing drought upstream.
This summer, Russia abandoned an agreement that allowed Ukraine to safely ship tens of millions of tons of grain through the Black Sea despite the fighting, raising renewed concerns about a global food crisis. The Russian military has since specifically targeted grain warehouses and port infrastructure around the Black Sea. Dozens of facilities have been destroyed, Ukrainian officials say, by Russian attack drones.
It was not immediately clear early Saturday how the rapid succession of developments in Ukrainian agricultural exports to Europe would affect markets in Ukraine, Eastern Europe or beyond.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, did not address the prospect of the new, unilateral bans in a brief statement on Friday. The statement said that market disruptions in Ukraine’s five neighboring countries had “disappeared” as a result of the temporary ban, and that Ukraine was taking measures, including an export licensing system, to prevent new disruptions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday said in a post on Xformerly Twitter, which he said he spoke to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and thanked for “keeping her word and upholding the rules of the internal market.”
Mr Zelensky also appeared to indirectly address the new bans in his late-night speech on Friday, saying it was “important that European unity works at a bilateral level – with its neighbours.”
“Europe always wins when treaties work and promises are kept,” he added. “Well, if the decisions of the neighboring countries are not neighborly, Ukraine will respond politely.”
Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Uman, Ukraine.