Farmers from countries bordering Ukraine have been protesting against “excessive” imports of agricultural and food products from the country in Brussels today (Tuesday, May 23), EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has said.

The commissioner met with farmer-representative groups from Eastern European member states which took to the streets, including from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania.

Signs held by farmers at the protest today read demands, including “Green Deal or grain deal? Pick one”; “Help Ukraine, but don’t bankrupt farmers”; and “Solidarity, not farmers’ suffering”.

Current stocks of cereals and oilseeds amount to 150% of what would have been the European average in previous years, a farmer-representative body in the Czech Republic said.

“Farmers are concerned that when the harvest begins in less than two months, they will have no one to sell to and nowhere to store the harvest,” the Czech Republic’s agrarian chamber said.

Protest

The extended suspension of import duties, quotas and trade defence measures on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year until June 2024 is of particular concern to farmers in countries bordering Ukraine.

Protest against agri imports from Ukraine
Polish farmers joined the protest in Brussels. Source: Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechows, Twitter

Supporting the protest, Copa Cogeca, the umbrella group of EU farm organisations and co-operatives, said that EU action should “alleviate” problems that “excessive” imports have caused in neighbouring countries to Ukraine.

The organisation underlined solidarity to Ukraine and “the need to secure country exports while ensuring a proper functioning of the EU single market, absorbing shocks from these imports in both volume and better enforcement of the EU standards”.

EU imports from Ukraine

EU imports of wheat from Ukraine increased from 300,000t in 2021 to 3.0 million tonnes last year. Maize imports rose from 7.4 million tonnes before the war to 12.2 million tonnes in 2022.

Exports of sunflower seeds from Ukraine to the EU climbed from 100,000t in 2021 to 1.9 million tonnes last year. Imports to Bulgaria were the highest, having increased from 36,163t to 943,402t in 2022.

Maize exports from Ukraine to Hungary rose from 15,394t to 1.08 million tonnes. Rapeseed, sunflower seed, and maize exports to Romania were up from 60t to 320,835t; from 418t to 359,183t; and from 69t to 739,299t respectively.

Poland’s imports of wheat, maize and rapeseed saw a significant increase from 2,375t to 500,008t; from 5,863t to 1.84 million tonnes; and from 78,077t to 657,585t respectively.