Hungary bans imports of more Ukrainian agricultural products to protect farmers’ interests – Xinhua English.news.cn

Xinhua News Agency – The Hungarian government announced on the 19th that it would expand the scope of the Ukrainian agricultural product import ban, adding honey, bread, sugar, flour, wine, edible oil, and a series of meat and vegetable products to the original list of prohibited imports.

The Hungarian government issued an executive order on the same day, saying that since Ukrainian agricultural products do not need to comply with the relevant laws and regulations of the European Union during the production process, their agricultural products have a competitive advantage and seriously disrupt the internal markets of EU member states. Therefore, Hungary decided to expand the scope of the import ban to protect the interests of its farmers.

Prior to this, Hungary issued an import ban on Ukrainian agricultural products on the 15th. The first batch of prohibited agricultural products included grain and rapeseed.

The ban is in effect until June 30. Ukrainian agricultural products shipped via Hungary to other countries are not within the scope of the ban.

In addition to Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have also issued similar bans on Ukrainian agricultural products.

Compared with the self-produced agricultural products of EU countries, agricultural products from Ukraine have a price advantage. At present, due to logistics and other issues, a large number of agricultural products shipped from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports are backlogged in Central and Eastern European countries, resulting in an oversupply in the markets of these countries, impacting the prices of local agricultural products, and triggering protests from farmers in Poland and other countries.

In response to the bans issued by Hungary, Poland and other countries, the EU called this decision “unacceptable” and called on relevant parties to “give an explanation” and immediately stop “unilateral” behavior.