EU agriculture ministers declare readiness to promote grain exports from Ukraine

Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union have expressed their readiness to further promote the export of Ukrainian food, in particular grain, to the bloc and to world markets. This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain Luis Planas Pujades.

During a press conference following the EU Ministerial Council on Agriculture and Fisheries, he said that the ministers considered new ways to transport Ukrainian food through Romania, Moldova, as well as the Baltic and Adriatic Seas.

At the same time, the minister from Spain, which currently holds the EU presidency, confirmed that no high-profile events in the world, including the crisis in the Middle East, diminish the importance of the efforts of the EU, Ukraine and its neighbors in organizing the export of grain products.

“I want to be very clear about this: you cannot play with food. We have to find a way to export Ukrainian grain to supply it, in particular, to certain countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the European Union. For us, this is also a matter of political solidarity,” Planas said.

He also added that the current situation on the agricultural market in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania is much better than it was five weeks ago. Thanks to the Coordination Platform, Ukraine’s constructive position and its bilateral negotiations with neighboring countries, it has managed to stabilize these markets and improve the efficiency of the “solidarity corridors” for the transit of Ukrainian grain products.

In his turn, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that in August, 4.38 million tons of Ukrainian grain were transported through the “solidarity corridors”, and in September – 3.8 million tons. The European official reminded that based on the results of this year’s harvest alone, Ukraine has about 56 million tons of grain intended for export. This means that the volume of grain exports should be at least 4.7 million tons per month.

Tags: EU, Ukraine, export, grain