Bulgaria sees temporary ban on Ukraine’s grain imports – Minister of Agriculture

Bulgaria is considering the possibility of imposing a temporary ban on grain imports from Ukraine, following the lead of Poland and Hungary, Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev said on Sunday.

On Saturday, Poland and Hungary said they are banning imports of Ukrainian agricultural products until June 30, citing the need to protect domestic farmers from the uncontrolled influx of cheap grain from Ukraine.

“Bulgarian interests must be protected, especially when two of the countries react in this way. If we do not react in a similar way, the accumulation (of Ukrainian grain) on Bulgarian territory may become even greater,” Gechev was quoted as saying by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) .

On Monday, Gechev is expected to receive reports on the legal bases of the bans imposed in other countries, BTA said. The following day, the Minister of Agriculture will reportedly discuss the situation with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev.

At the end of March, the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia published a joint open letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in which they called for measures to counter the negative effects of the increased Ukrainian grain imports. Since the beginning of February, several Polish farmers’ organizations have been campaigning against the imported Ukrainian grain, mainly of poor quality, which flooded the Polish market and damaged local production.

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