Fanciful: Ukraine was ‘feeding the world”- Reality is Ukraine is undermining it’s neighbours. Why?
Five EU countries have said massive imports of cheaper Ukrainian grain are putting local farmers under pressure. They’re pushing Brussels to help.
But farmers in Poland then began protesting that they were being flooded by Ukrainian grain imports and felt they were being undercut, even if the grain was supposed to be destined for sale outside the EU.
In recent days and after months of discontent, Ukraine’s western neighbors Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have all announced import restrictions on Ukrainian grain. The European Commission has criticized the moves, but is now working on a fresh round of funding to relieve farmers and come up with a common approach. In the past few days, Warsaw and Bucharest have indicated they would lift some of the restrictive measures.
Why hasn’t Ukraine taken advantage of the Black Sea Grain Initiative? Maybe the future is unclear but this information is talking past and present. What’s going on?
In the meantime, the future of the Black Sea Grain Initiative — up and running since August — currently looks unclear. Russia has been indicating it might stop abiding by the export facilitation deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey and designed to keep food supplies flowing out of the region and feeding the world. On Sunday, agriculture ministers from the seven wealthy industrial G7 countries called for its extension
Theoretically, the member states striking out on their own could be sanctioned if they were found to have broken EU rules, but the EU executive branch seems more interested in finding a solution.
The European Commission is looking at pulling together another package of aid worth around €100 million ($110 million), a senior EU official said on condition of anonymity at a briefing. This comes after a €56 million package earlier this year, plus national relief plans financed in part by the relaxation of EU state aid rules.
The current focus is finding a common EU measure that ensures Ukrainian grain makes its way out of the country and then onward to the non-EU markets it is intended for, according to the senior EU source.
I’m not sure why Ukrainian grain hasn’t been making it’s way to non-EU markets? Anyone?