The EU ban on Ukrainian grain imports is set to expire on Friday, and Poland and Hungary have both declared they intend to prolong the exclusion. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated that Poland will not allow itself to be flooded by Ukrainian grain, and that now the interests of Polish farmers must come first. With one month to go before the general election, the Polish government is neck-and-neck with the opposition in the polls and desperately needs the rural vote to win. However, Polish rural voters, who typically back PiS, have grown increasingly disenchanted with the governing party due to the Ukrainian grain issue and previously mismanagement of animal disease crises.
Hungary’s agriculture minister, Istvan Nagy, said his government had asked the European Commission to extend the ban on imports, which includes wheat and maize, but received no response. He said that Brussels is silent, so they have to act alone to defend their farmers. In contrast, the Bulgarian parliament voted on Thursday to lift the ban on the import of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds. The decision will be effective from Friday and the government, headed by Nickolay Denkov, is hopeful this will lead to a decrease in food prices.
In early May, the European Commission agreed a ban on imports of Ukrainian grains and oilseeds to five Central and Southeast European countries – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria – after farmers in these countries protested that Ukrainian produce destined for foreign markets was actually remaining on domestic markets and pushing them into bankruptcy. The five countries agreed to continue allowing the transit of Ukrainian food products, which became even more important after Russia quit a UN-brokered deal allowing Ukraine to export grain via Black Sea ports in July and started to bomb Ukrainian ports and grain storage infrastructure.
The other 22 EU member states are against extending the ban, though on Friday Politico quoted unnamed sources as saying that the Commission could extend the restrictions for another two months. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal warned that Kyiv might turn to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for arbitration if bans on his country’s produce are extended beyond mid-September. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Bulgaria for its decision to lift the ban on Ukrainian grain imports, and Bulgarian Agricultural Minister Kiril Vatev said that he would increase control over all imports coming from Ukraine, especially in terms of radioactivity and the presence of heavy metal contents.