EU Agriculture Commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski has been criticised by some MEPs as just over 2% of Ukrainian grain leave the EU following the end of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Grain exports from the country continued via road and rail transport along Solidarity Lanes through Romania and Poland after Russia withdrew from the grain deal in July.
Due to costs for transit and transport via the two countries, grain from Ukraine is more expensive than from Russia. Only 2.3% of Ukrainian grain goes to ports as there are “no buyers”, he said.
A proposal for subsidies, by Commissioner Wojciechowski, to cover the costs for transport to Baltic ports for export of Ukrainian grain to third countries is currently under discussion in the commission.
Depending on destination the price for transit would range from €20-30/t. Thus, using around €600 million could support the export of 20 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine, he said.
Ukrainian grain
This proposal, he said, is supported by Ukraine and the five frontline member states – Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia – where an import ban for Ukrainian grain is in place.
However, while this is not an official position of the commission, the commissioner said that subsidies to cover the costs for transport to ports only make sense if the import ban is extended.
Current restrictions on the imposts of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower, which were agreed with the commission in May, are set to remain in place until September 15.
The resumption of grain imports into these neighbouring countries risks flooding their markets once again without the grain moving any further, Commissioner Wojciechowski warned.
In Poland, for example, Ukrainian grain remains in the country as it is cheaper than domestic produce. He said it won’t pay off sending the grain much further than Germany or Lithuania.
“It is not economically viable to send those cereals to Africa. It is Ukraine that needs to find buyers.
“This is not about a lack of efficiency or capacity or infrastructure. The problem is that it is not economically viable, therefore the grain ends up in the EU,” Commissioner Wojciechowski said.
Ukraine will have 56 million tonnes of grain, or 4-5 million tonnes per month, for export via Solidarity Lanes this year, he said, as the Black Sea corridor is again blocked by Russia.
Before the war, EU agri-food imports from Ukraine stood at €7 billion. In 2022 they reached €13 billion. Of this increase, almost €5 billion worth of exports went to the five countries.
While most of Ukrainian grain now goes to the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, he said that these countries needed the grain due to the impacts of drought and for meat production.
The EU was already a main destination for Ukrainian grain exported under the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Of the over 32 million tonnes exported, almost 13 million tonnes went to the EU.