Polish minister for agriculture resigns over Ukrainian grain imports

Poland’s Henryk Kowalczyk has introduced his resignation from his submit as Minister for Agriculture and Rural Growth, Agriland understands.

European media reported that the previous minister made the announcement throughout a press convention yesterday (Wednesday, April 5), and cited his incapacity to deal with the continuing disaster round Ukrainian grain imports as the principle cause for stepping down.

It’s understood that Minister Kowalczyk’s celebration urged him to depart his submit after he failed to offer reassurance to Polish farmers who’re involved over the drop in costs and gross sales of their produce.

Downward stress on costs has been slowly mounting since Ukraine started utilizing its land border with Poland to export duty-free grain to different EU nations, after its Black Sea ports have been largely decommissioned by Russian blockades final yr.

Polish media reviews state that though this grain, which is cheaper than grain produced in EU nations, is ready to journey to different states by way of Poland, massive portions of it have been remaining there.

This has had a damaging impression on the value of Polish grain and created rigidity amongst native farmers, who known as on the European Fee to re-introduce tariffs.

The development has develop into a difficulty in a number of nations that border Ukraine, together with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, the place merchandise similar to oilseeds, eggs and poultry have skilled an analogous impression.

This led to the penning of a letter to fee president Ursula von der Leyen on the difficulty, which was signed by the prime minister in every of the states. Regardless of this, the fee determined to increase the duty-free imports of Ukrainian grain into the union till June 2024.

Nonetheless, a €56 million monetary help bundle is at present being rolled out to among the affected states after the fee signed off on a proposal on March 30, to help farmers who’ve been impacted by the rise in Ukrainian exports.

The funding, which is coming from the agricultural reserve, will present €29.5 million to Poland, €16.75 to Bulgaria and €10.05 million to Romania.

As well as, all three nations can be allowed to match this EU help as much as 100% with nationwide funds, bringing the full monetary assist accessible to €112.6 million.

In the meantime, Romanian MEP Eugen Tomac has reported on social media that Romanian farmers are protesting on the EU Fee right now (Thursday, April 6), the place they’re calling for additional monetary help value €100 million.

In a submit on Twitter, he stated that “equity follows solidarity”, and stated that 60% of the Ukrainian grain that’s travelling by way of the EU’s solidarity lanes goes by way of Romania.

He said that this has negatively impacted gross sales and costs achieved by Romanian grain, which is resulting in “in-work poverty” amongst farmers.