European Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski calls it essential to exclude Russia from international trade. As a sanction against President Putin's regime, the international community has closed Russia, among other things, from international payment transactions. This will also bring a large part of trade to a standstill.
The invasion of Ukraine also threatens to seriously disrupt world markets for agricultural products and raw materials necessary for agricultural production, such as energy and fertilizers. Since the beginning of the conflict, there has been a sharp rise in world prices. This has further implications for markets, which have recently seen historically high prices for key commodities.
According to the European agricultural chief, agricultural exports from the European Union to the three countries involved in the conflict – Russia, Belarus and Ukraine – amount to 10.5 billion euros in turnover and imports 8 billion euros. This is six percent of the EU trade. Wojciechowski considers the figures important, but not decisive for agriculture and food security in Europe.
Wojciechowski will attend a video meeting on Wednesday afternoon (March 2) to update the 27 agriculture ministers in an informal meeting, just as the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee was informed at the beginning of this week.
The consequences are particularly strong for the eight neighboring countries, which will be most affected by the conflict: Poland, the Baltic States, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The main European agricultural producers, such as France and Germany, will be less affected, he says.
Dutch LNV minister Henk Staghouwer says in a letter to parliament that the discussion has also been arranged to identify actions that must be taken within the EU, also in collaboration with other international bodies, such as the FAO and the OECD. He pointed out that the meeting will not make any concrete decisions yet.
Wojciechowski contradicted reports that the new agricultural policy and food strategy should be revised because of the war in Ukraine. In his view, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents a very good compromise between ecologists and farmers who feared restrictions.
I do not think that the new CAP will lead to a fall in agricultural production. On the contrary, certain measures could contribute to its development, the EU commissioner told reporters during a visit to a French agricultural fair.