The Polish, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian Ministers of Agriculture agreed to call on the European Commission to take action, during the Agriculture and Fisheries Council Meeting in January in Brussels, to stabilise the internal market regarding highly increased Ukrainian grain imports – István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture, announced.
The Hungarian Minister has negotiated with several EU Ministers of Agriculture on the agricultural market situation in the European Union in the framework of the International Green Week in Berlin.
The main reason of the meeting is that in recent months, despite the partial reopening of Ukrainian ports, Ukraine’s grain and oilseed exports have increased significantly in Hungary and other EU Member States neighbouring Ukraine, causing serious market disruptions in these countries. Large international grain trading companies are now transporting Ukrainian grain to the traditional EU and non-EU export markets of Hungarian grain, which significantly reduced the demand for goods of domestic producers.
The significant volume of imports from Ukraine to the EU by sea and land also decreases producer prices despite high input costs, and its long-term presence would cause serious problems in Europe’s grain and oilseed producing countries. In order to prevent these negative processes, it is necessary to review the developed market conditions and take appropriate EU measures – the Minister of Agriculture highlighted at the meeting.
Our aim is primarily to protect domestic and European farmers, to preserve the EU’s internal market balance, respecting the EU measures to facilitate access to the world market for Ukrainian goods – the minister emphasized.