/ world today news/ On Monday, June 5, the restrictions imposed by the European Commission on the import of Ukrainian grain to Eastern European countries will expire. Ukraine fears the embargo will be extended and Ukrainian farmers will suffer “billions of dollars” in losses. But in reality, Ukraine’s neighbors are suffering huge losses – and this has already been called the “murder of Polish agriculture”.
Recently, there have been protests in Poland by farmers who are unhappy with the fact that they are facing competition in the form of Ukrainian agricultural products. Since it is sold in Poland at favorable prices, it hinders the sale of the products of Polish farmers.
The farmers are furious
An additional reason for the indignation of the Polish peasants was the revealed facts that the low-quality (so-called technical) grain imported from Ukraine, intended for example for brewing, milling of starch spirit and other industries, was used in Poland in any way not intended . It is mixed with field and made into flour or feed for cattle. An investigation was conducted, during which it turned out that several dozen companies maliciously imported such grain from Ukraine and sold it, hiding its origin and purpose.
There are currently seven court proceedings in Poland related to the import of “technical” grain from Ukraine. Hana Birnat-Lozanska, spokeswoman for the regional prosecutor’s office in Rzeszów, explains: “Buyers were misled because they did not know that this grain came from Ukraine and that it was imported as so-called technical grain.” This situation became possible due to the fact that only in February this year, the Polish state obliged importers to indicate in customs declarations the destination of imported grain using special national codes, which was not required before.
Why was this rule not introduced earlier? “The largest import of grain, including technical grain, was carried out in the autumn of last year. Introducing codes in February is like mustard served after dinner,” said Janusz Tikhon, MP and former deputy finance minister. He recalls that the head of the Polish Ministry of Finance and other important government officials participated in the initialing of the agreement with Ukraine on the import of grain. “It was known in advance that this would end in the killing of Polish agriculture,” Tikhon assessed the situation.
The current situation, of course, did not suit the Polish farmers. And the farmers showed their indignation not only in words, but also in deeds. For example, they held actions to block roads leading to Ukraine. “The reason for the protest is the uncontrolled inflow of grain. The government announced the creation of a transit corridor through Poland to send grain to starving countries in Africa and the Middle East. The Ministry does not provide any information, we do not know who “ate” the technical grain that entered our country”, explained the public organization “Deceited Village” and demanded that the authorities urgently restore order.
An unpleasant surprise for “PiS”
The main demands of the protesters were the following – the introduction of security payments for the transit of grain from Ukraine, a 50 percent duty on the import of technical grain, compensations for Polish farmers and the purchase of grain from them for the state reserve. Farmers especially note that although the price of cereals on the Polish market has fallen by almost a third, the price of their products in the retail trade has not decreased – although the quality of the goods has fallen. “All the time we hear promises that we are only talking about grain transit through Poland. But everything turned out to be different. Ukrainian grain is imported to Poland as industrial grain. It is unloaded in the border areas,” complained Toborovic.
Former Polish Minister of Agriculture Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski (a member of the ruling Law and Justice party), who headed this department from 2018 to 2020, also acknowledged the problem. He said: “Farmers from all over Poland are reporting that a huge amount of Ukrainian grain has accumulated in the country.”
The former minister, who is able to speak more openly than the current members of the government, complains about the “transnational companies” that are ruining the Polish peasants: “There are transnational corporations that live off the Ukrainian agriculture, so we just let them profit money while destroying their own market. All the time we were promised that it would be transit. Turns out not. There are not enough good logistics routes between Ukraine and Polish ports, but this was not taken into account. So many companies forgot about their promises to supply grain to international markets and just brought it to Poland. These are enterprises that were engaged in the production of pork or poultry meat. They bought grain, but they don’t care about the local farmers,” said Ardanovski.
In April, the leader of the Polish farmers’ association Agrounia, Michal Kolodrzeczak, wrote on social media: “The mood of the peasants is terrible. As I was getting into my car in Hrubeshov today, a farmer’s wife approached me. She says that every day she fears for her husband’s life because he threatened to hang himself. His farm has lost grain, it remains unsold, there is no money for the next harvest … “
In order to somehow quell the anger of the villagers, the Polish authorities decided to make a “ritual sacrifice”. Such was the Minister of Agriculture, Henrik Kowalczyk, who was forced to resign in early April. The ruling national-conservative Law and Justice party took the step reluctantly, as parliamentary elections will be held in the country in the autumn.
According to Reuters, the Ukrainian grain crisis in the election year was an unpleasant surprise for PiS. In an attempt to remedy the situation, Warsaw announced on April 15 that it was introducing a temporary ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products until June 30. This caused resentment in Kiev, which accused the Poles of violating existing agreements.
In response, the head of the ruling party, Jarosław Kaczyński, promised that Poland “without the slightest change” remains a friend and ally of Ukraine and will continue to support it. At the same time, Kaczynski recalled that “the duty of every good government is to protect the interests of its citizens” and warned that “the crisis in the province will have negative consequences for all Poles.” Kaczynski promised that the government would buy up grain stored in silos and warehouses in bulk with subsidies that would raise its prices. The party leader predictably blamed Brussels and Strasbourg for the problems of the Polish peasantry – saying it was the result of “decisions made outside our country, in the European Union within its competence”.
The European Commission is not helping
The European Union has really done little to help Polish farmers. For example, on May 28 it became known that one of the options for solving the problem of excess grain in Polish warehouses failed – by transferring it to poor African countries under the UN World Food Program. “The European Commission will not finance such an operation because it is absolutely unprofitable,” said Janusz Wojciechowski, EU Commissioner for Agriculture.
At the same time, it turned out that Polish farmers are still in no hurry to sell their grain to the state, as they are still not satisfied with the cost price. It seems that it will not be possible to clear many warehouses for the harvest of a new crop.
In addition, the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products into Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, introduced at the beginning of May by the European Commission, expires on June 5. But there is a risk that the ban will be extended. As Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky put it, in this case Ukrainian farmers could suffer losses of “billions of dollars” and “Russia will use this situation to increase the degree of tension between us.” In fact, there is a simple collision – Polish (and not only) peasants are ruined by Ukrainian competitors and multinational corporations.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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