The deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Michał Kołodziejczak, said that since the beginning of 2024, 90,000 tonnes of wheat, around 370,000 tonnes of maize and just under 200,000 tonnes of rape have been transited through Poland from Ukraine. “And they have left Poland. This gives us, on 10 March, about 600 thousand tonnes of all these products,” Kolodziejczak added.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development reminded that the transit of Ukrainian products through Poland is permitted. In accordance with the Ordinance of the Minister of Development and Technology of 15 September 2023 on the ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine, Poland has introduced an indefinite ban on the import into our country of certain types of cereals, oilseeds or oilcakes.
It should be recalled that in November last year, the then Minister of Agriculture Robert Telus reported that the transit of cereals from Ukraine through Poland at the beginning of 2023 was between 133,000 and 142,000 tonnes per month, to reach 346,000 tonnes in October 2023.
The liberalisation of the European Union’s trade with Ukraine was first introduced in June 2022, following Russia’s aggression. It was then extended for a further year in mid-2023. The European Commission is now expected to propose another one-year extension, until June 2025.
The European Commission banned imports of wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in early May 2023, following an agreement with these countries on Ukrainian agri-food products. Initially, the restrictions were in place until 5 June and were then extended until mid-September. The embargo was lifted on 15 September 2023 by EC order.
Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia introduced an embargo on Ukrainian agricultural products after this date, which led Kyiv to file a complaint against those countries with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The restrictions concerned domestic markets, not transit to further markets.
Adrian Andrzejewski