Poland, Hungary ban grain and food imports from Ukraine

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Sat Apr 15, 2023, 08:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

WARSAW, April 15 (Reuters) - Poland and Hungary have decided to ban imports of grain and other food from neighbouring Ukraine to protect the local agricultural sector, the two governments said on Saturday, after a flood of supply depressed prices across the region. Ukraine expressed regret about the Polish decision, saying that "resolving various issues by unilateral drastic actions will not accelerate a positive resolution of the situation".

After Russia's invasion blocked some Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, ended up staying in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers. In a letter to the European Commission last month, the prime ministers of five eastern European countries said the scale of the increase in products like grains, oilseeds, eggs, poultry and sugar had been "unprecedented", and said tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural imports should potentially be considered.

The impact of the oversupply has created a political problem for Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in an election year, with the economy mired in stagflation."Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the entry, importation of grain into Poland, but also dozens of other types of food (from Ukraine)," PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said during a party convention.

The list of these goods, which will range "from grain to honey products, very, very many things", will be included in the government regulation, he added. Ukraine's ministry of agrarian policy and food said the Polish ban contradicted existing bilateral agreements on exports, and called for talks to settle the issue.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-government-bans-grain-food-imports-ukraine-2023-04-15/

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Article updated.

Original article -

WARSAW, April 15 (Reuters) - Poland and Hungary have decided to ban imports of grain and other food from neighbouring Ukraine to protect the local agricultural sector, the two governments said on Saturday, after a flood of supply depressed prices across the region. Ukraine expressed regret about the Polish decision, saying that "resolving various issues by unilateral drastic actions will not accelerate a positive resolution of the situation".

After Russia's invasion blocked some Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, ended up staying in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers. In a letter to the European Commission last month, the prime ministers of five eastern European countries said the scale of the increase in products like grains, oilseeds, eggs, poultry and sugar had been "unprecedented", and said tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural imports should potentially be considered.

The impact of the oversupply has created a political problem for Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in an election year, with the economy mired in stagflation. "Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the entry, importation of grain into Poland, but also dozens of other types of food (from Ukraine)," PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said during a party convention.

The list of these goods, which will range "from grain to honey products, very, very many things", will be included in the government regulation, he added. Ukraine's ministry of agrarian policy and food said the Polish ban contradicted existing bilateral agreements on exports, and called for talks to settle the issue.

[TheRealNorth]

1. Right,-wingers love to crow about the free market.....

Until it starts to work against them.

[groundloop]

5. Absolutely.... look at oil.

As you said, the right wing insists that government should leave the markets alone to do their own thing, yet if the price of gasoline happens to go up a little bit they're bitching that President Biden needs to step in and fix it.

[elleng]

2. DAMN!

[Evolve Dammit]

3. Come on folks, let's work something out here FCS.

[Cha]

4. Fuck the Fascist Putin

loving fucks.

[oldsoftie]

6. I dont think anyone in Poland is a big Putin fan.

But the PROBLEM certainly is Putins fault

[PlutosHeart]

7. Poland's leader is a conservative R-winger

People were upset about his laws against abortion. I have many concerns about Poland right now.

[oldsoftie]

11. Putin is a much more serious problem than Poland's leader. He WAS just reelected too

Poland has stepped up & taken in over a MILLION UKR refugees. They have warned us for 20 years what Putin was going to do & nobody listened. PUTIN is a threat to the worlds economies. Poland's abortion laws are way down the list of importance right now. Defeating Russian expansionism is far more important.

[PlutosHeart]

14. Why do I feel you are chastising me?

I get Poland more than you know. Am in frequent contact with my cousin who lives there. My grandmother fled there as well.
To point out what I did is not bashing Poland. It is reality and so are the tensions from how it has affected mood and thought there as well. I feel I keep a realistic hand on the pulse there. Out of concern.
dziękuję

[oldsoftie]

15. I'm not chastising you. I'm just saying Putin should be everyones focus

I'm sure there are strains in Poland; its not easy providing as much as they have to UKR & on top of that taking IN as many people as they have. And I mentioned Poland warning the West for YEARS; along with the Baltics, and nobody would listen. I'm sure there are issues, since Duda wasnt reelected in a landslide. But I think the large majority see the attack on UKR as a major threat to THEM as well. Maybe they dont; I dont know people there. But the social media posts I see from there are not kind to Putin. Because I think people know Putin wont stop with UKR.
Thank God for Poland. I wish ALL the EU countries were as proactive as they have been

[PlutosHeart]

17. Yes. But like I said

turning a blind eye to the whole of the situation in Poland is not a good idea.
I know there is an attempt by Putin to put a strain on them. So far no success.
I hear about this from someone who has had a strong involvement with high level politics there.

[oldsoftie]

18. I guarantee thats true. He will do ANYTHING to try to break this alliance.

He never expected so many to stand against him. He cant win on the battlefield so he has to try to sow dissent among the allies.

[PlutosHeart]

19. The old playbook.

[ancianita]

8. My first thought is, if Ukraine needs export trade, I'm relieved that Ukraine can export at all.

I'm surprised. Maybe I'm naive, but I thought war like this one caused shortages.

Just wondering ... if there are logistics problems, it seems like other NATO countries would help Ukraine out in getting to other markets, maybe help unblock Black Sea ports. Africa needs food. Many other countries need that food at this time of year. Maybe it's Ukraine's not having been able to retain its former foreign trade relationships?

[oldsoftie]

12. I've thought the same; NATO guarantees a safe path for food shipments.

I doubt russia would actually try to stop it.

[Tetrachloride]

9. If there are ships, someone will buy grain

[tornado34jh]

10. Well, we can blame this on Russia

The thing is, if the grains and all that were allowed, it would not be a bottleneck of supply that backs in places like Poland, Hungary, and so forth. Basically Odesa, Kherson, Chornomorsk, Mykolaiv/Mykolayiv, Yevpatoriya, and Sevastopol, all those are ports of Ukraine in the Black Sea, with Kyrylivka, Berdyansk, Mariupol and Kerch also being ports connecting to the Black Sea via the Sea of Azov. But they are either blocked off, are occupied, or damaged/destroted by Russia. If Russia had not invaded Ukraine, this probably would never have happened. But because Ukraine told Russia to screw off and it angered their ego and imperialistic pride, they invaded Ukraine to destroy/occupy it and kill off anybody not Russian. But they will have to answer for their war crimes.

I think another reason why they are mad that Ukraine told them to screw off is that Russia doesn't really have a lot of ports it can use. If you look at it, the ports of Russia in the Black Sea/Sea of Azov are Novorossiysk, Sochi, and Taganrog. In the Baltic Sea they have Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg, the former of which is surrounded by what it perceives as "hostile enemies" (i.e. Poland and Lithuania). Up north they have Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, but those are out in the middle of nowhere and not really that viable of a trade area because it is in Arctic waters and would have to go around Scandinavia. Then in the east you have Vladivostok and maybe Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk maybe Petropavlovisk-Kamatchatskiy. But really it's the fact that Ukraine has a large part of its area near the Black Sea/Sea of Azov, from Prymorske in the south, up through Odesa, Mykolaiv, Crimea, Berdyansk, Mariuopol and Kerch, all of which are Ukrainian territory. It isn't just territory, its resources. Russia is mad because it doesn't have that much access to the Black Sea, which ultimately, through Turkey, leads to the Mediterranean Sea. If you can get to the Mediterranean Sea, you gain access to a whole lot more than you would go through land. Just as it was back in ancient times, the oceans are the main way of supply. Even today, 80-90% of them are transported by sea.

[reqd]

13. I'm surprised that Poland did this

I understand the idiot in Hungary doing it because they have a pro Russia president.

[TheRealNorth]

16. The Polish president is a mini Trump

The only reason they are supporting Ukraine is because they could be next on Putin's list.