Poland calculated the amount of uncontrolled imports of Ukrainian grain in 2022-23

The Supreme Audit Office of Poland (Najwyższa Izba Kontroli, NIK) has completed an investigation into uncontrolled grain imports from Ukraine for the period from early January 2022 to the end of August 2023 and called the cause of the grain crisis “ineffective actions and decisions of the Polish government.”

This is reported by the Polish edition of Rzeczpospolita.

It is noted that the growth of imports was huge. In 2021, 3.1 thousand tons were imported from Ukraine to Poland, and in 2022 (the year the war in Ukraine began) 523 thousand tons, which means an increase of 16.771%.

For corn, the increase was even higher: from 6.2 thousand tons in 2021 to 1.85 million tons in 2022, i.e. by 29.803%.

In turn, rapeseed imports increased in 2022 to 662 thousand tons from 86 thousand tons in 2021. Imports of wheat increased from 3.1 thsd tonnes in 2021 to 523 thsd tonnes in 2022, corn – from 6.2 thsd tonnes to 1.85 mln tonnes, and rapeseed – from 86 thsd tonnes to 662 thsd tonnes.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian grain is much cheaper, and millions of tons arrived in Poland before the harvest.

During the audit period, 541 companies imported 4.3 million tons of grains and oilseeds to Poland, worth PLN 6.2 billion. The largest amount of grain and rapeseed was imported by a company from the Mazovian Voivodeship, which transships and sells agricultural products. The value of these imports exceeded PLN 0.5 billion.

Among the other companies in the top ten importers (totaling PLN 2 billion), five are also based in Mazovia, and the rest are engaged in grain trade, oil production, poultry and pig farming in the Lubelskie, Pomeranian, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lesser Poland voivodeships.

The Polish Ministry of Agriculture is convinced that former Minister of Agriculture Henryk Kowalczyk, urging farmers not to sell grain and rapeseed, increased chaos in the market and misled them with the promise of high prices that will increase in the second half of 2022. The Minister of Agriculture’s assessment of the situation was incorrect and was not supported by data and analysis that would have allowed him to predict further developments.

It was only in December 2022 that the former Minister of Agriculture informed the European Commission about the “grain crisis”. As a result, it was only in April 2023 that Poland submitted an application to the EC to reimpose duties on Ukrainian grain. In mid-2023, a ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine was introduced, the report says.

“The situation caused by excessive grain imports has shown that no tools have been developed to counteract the destabilization of the Polish agricultural market. The agricultural policy, which lacked planning and market analysis, lacked long-term and far-sighted actions,” the report of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland states.

Tags: grain, Poland, wheat, rapeseed, Ukraine, corn