Quality Control of Ukrainian Grain to be Moved From Poland to Lithuania

Over the next two days, veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control will be moved from the Ukrainian-Polish border to the port of Klaipeda in Lithuania.

This is reported on the official website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.

According to the announcement, such an agreement was reached during a three-party online meeting between the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Poland Robert Telus, and the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania Kęstutis Navickas.

"We have reached an important agreement. Starting from Wednesday, the checks on Ukrainian grain transiting through Lithuania will be transferred from the Ukrainian-Polish border to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda," Minister Robert Telus announced.

The parties believe that this decision will significantly expedite the transit of grain through the territory of Poland and emphasize that the governments of the countries "support such a control mechanism and consider it a constructive step."

Minister Telus separately emphasized that "this is a good thing in building this transit, in building this corridor of solidarity that we, as Poland, have built in Europe."

It should be recalled that in February 2022, the Russian Federation blocked Ukrainian ports, restricting the export of Ukrainian grain to world markets, including to Asian and African countries, which triggered a global food crisis.

The European Union countries agreed to open their borders for the transit export of Ukrainian agricultural products. However, the appearance of Ukrainian grain on European markets caused concern among some local farmers.

In response, in May of this year, the European Commission introduced restrictions on the sale of Ukrainian agricultural products in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. These sanctions lasted until September 15, 2023, and were then lifted.

However, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia stated that they do not plan to lift the ban on Ukrainian agricultural products and, in the event that the European Commission does not extend the restrictive measures, they will introduce them at the national level.

As a result, Kyiv decided to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), which caused some outrage, especially in Poland.

Earlier, Ukraine developed a procedure for verifying the export of agricultural products and stopped exporting to five neighboring countries without their prior agreement.

Yesterday, the ministers of agriculture of Slovakia and Ukraine agreed to create a grain trade licensing system to lift the ban on imports.