The EU ambassadors have now agreed on a new compromise where even fewer Ukrainian goods may be imported duty-free into the EU. This is likely to be a disadvantage for Ukrainian agriculture. The goods involved include eggs, poultry, sugar, and maize.
A majority in the European Parliament is also needed to further tighten the requirements. A vote on this could take place during the last plenary meeting week, on April 22, before Strasbourg goes into recess for the election campaign.
According to Ukraine, its grain exports to EU countries have now returned to pre-2022 levels. For almost a year, Ukraine has delivered no wheat, sunflower, maize, and rapeseed via neighboring countries, with the vast majority of agricultural exports again shipped over the Black Sea.
Over the past months, the Ukrainian armed forces have succeeded in driving the Russian navy out of the western part of the Black Sea. This included torpedoing and sinking two large Russian ships in open sea. Russian navy vessels have also been attacked in ports on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
During the Agriculture Council, Ukrainian minister Mykola Solsky noted that since the beginning of the year, approximately 12 million tons of the 17 million tons of agricultural exports have been transported out of the country through the ports of Odessa, nearly 3 million tons via the Danube through neighboring Romania, and only 2 million tons overland, mainly by rail, through adjacent EU countries.
"We transport as much through Poland in a month as we export in one day via our seaports. Moreover, sea export costs are much cheaper and more competitive than overland transport," Solsky added. He emphasized that Ukrainian agricultural products have hardly had any negative effects on the EU markets.
Poland hopes it will not be necessary to stop the transit of agricultural products from Ukraine. This was stated by Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Sekerski to journalists in Brussels. He did not say whether Poland will now end the Polish farmer blockades at the Ukrainian border crossings.