Ukraine and Poland have reached the agreement to resume the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products. It will start operating on the night of April 20-21, 2023.
The UN-backed grain corridor is the main exit route for Ukrainian agricultural exports, so the decision by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria to block them too will cause considerable damage to Ukrainian farmers and a sector hard hit by the war.
Kyiv's hope is that a negotiated solution will be found on a multilateral scale between Ukraine, the national governments involved and the European Commission (EC), whose decision to lift tariffs on its products triggered a reaction from the four eastern countries.
As part of the Grain from Ukraine initiative of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the ship Negmar Cicek delivered humanitarian cargo – 30,000 tons of wheat – to the Port of Salif in the Republic of Yemen.
As expected, Russia took advantage of the situation when three European countries banned the import of Ukrainian products, and Poland, moreover, banned transit.
As a result of these actions, the export of Ukrainian agricultural products is again very limited.
Unilateral action on trade by European Union member states is unacceptable, the bloc's executive said on Sunday, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on grain and other food imports from Ukraine to protect their local agricultural sectors.
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi held an online meeting with the Minister of Agriculture of Hungary István Nagy. The parties discussed the situation with the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to Hungary.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine regrets the decision of its Polish counterparts to temporarily restrict exports of agricultural goods from Ukraine to and through the territory of Poland (including transit). The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine has always supported open, constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation in accordance with the Association and Free Trade Agreements between Ukraine and the EU.
The Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy will soon return to consideration of Bill No. 7232 on the introduction of additional taxation of the income of companies that continue to operate on the Russian market, the chairman of the committee, Danylo Hetmantsev said.
In the April balance sheet, USDA experts left the forecast for sunflower exports from Ukraine at 2.65 million tons (1.62 million tons in 2021/22), although actual exports may decrease due to restrictions on Ukrainian grain supplies to Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. The forecast for sunflower processing in Ukraine in 2022/23 was increased by 0.2 to 10.4 million tons, and the estimate of ending stocks was reduced by 0.18 to 1.47 million tons, while last year they amounted to 4.69 million tons.
Ukraine has opened its first biomethane plant. Today, the first cubic meters of gas have been supplied to the gas distribution network. The plant will provide about 1,500 consumers per year.