Hungary did not extend the ban on the import of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine

On May 14, Hungary lost the validity of Resolution 130/2023, which banned the import of more than 20 categories of Ukrainian agricultural products from 2023 – grain, oilseeds, flour, poultry meat, eggs, etc. The resolution was an emergency decree, and the new Hungarian government ended the state of emergency on May 13. This was reported to Latifundist.com by Olga Harabara, a senior broker at Barva Invest.

“To extend the ban, the new parliament had to raise it to the level of a law, as it did with other decrees (for example, on fuel). The clause on agricultural products was not included in the new law,” she says.

Accordingly, from a technical point of view, Hungary does not actually ban the import of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine.

However, in fact, this is not a permit or a signal of readiness to accept Ukrainian goods – there are no official statements from the Tisza government or the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture about liberalization, and the Hungarian farmers’ union MAGOSZ has already appealed to the government with a demand to urgently restore the ban through law, Harabara noted.

“So in practice, there are possible “spokes in the wheels” until the situation becomes clearer, in the future the government may renew the ban. Taking these aspects into account, it is currently not clear whether there will be demand from the Hungarian side, or whether the market will be waiting for clarification,” she concluded.

Hungary first announced a temporary ban on the import of grain and oilseed crops from Ukraine in April 2023. Then it banned the import of 25 agricultural products.

Tags: Ukraine, export, grain, wheat, Hungary, restrictions