Poland wants the European Union to use all tools at its disposal to limit the amount of Ukrainian grain entering the EU market, the Polish prime minister said on Wednesday amid protests by farmers over imports driving down Polish grain prices pressed, reports PolskieRadio. Peasant discontent is a major headache for the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party in an election year, as its conservative electoral base lives mostly in rural areas and small towns, Reuters reports.
“We demand the use of all regulatory instruments – quotas, tariffs, restricting or blocking the import of Ukrainian grain to Poland,” Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference. Morawiecki also said he had reached an agreement with the leaders of several countries bordering Ukraine to write to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding action. The Polish Prime Minister told reporters: “This grain is destabilizing our market.”
Ukraine, one of the largest grain exporters in the world, had temporarily closed its Black Sea ports after the Russian invasion in February 2022 and, after Black Sea exports resumed, also opened up alternative routes through the EU states of Poland and Romania. Logistical bottlenecks mean that large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the EU, have ended up in the Eastern European countries, massively affecting prices and sales of local farmers.
The Polish Prime Minister said at the press conference: “I have instructed Deputy Prime Minister Henryk Kowalczyk to very quickly establish rules that will allow us to sell part of the grain accumulated in Poland to North Africa and the Middle East – which is actually his original one Destination was,” reports PolskieRadio.