EU states ban Ukraine imports

The European Commission (EC) has reached an agreement with five member states which had announced bans on Ukrainian grain imports to protect their farmers from falling prices, AgriCensus reported on 1 May.

“We reached an agreement in principle with five neighbouring member states – Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – as well as with Ukraine itself,” European Union (EU) trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told a press conference on 28 April following an informal Ecofin council meeting.

“The EC will propose emergency safeguard measures for the four most sensitive products – wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflowerseed. We will launch so-called ‘safeguard investigations' on several other products as well.”

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, Ukrainian grain exports via its Black Sea

In Brief

BLACK SEA: Inspection of vessels waiting to exit or enter the Ukrainian Black Sea were suspended on 17 and 18 April, AgriCensus reports.

The inspections are part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in July 2022 and brokered by the United Nations (UN) and Turkey to allow food exports from the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi.

At the time of the 18 April report, around 50 vessels were waiting for inspection.

The delays followed another stoppage on 11 April which the UN said had occurred to give all parties time to agree on operational priorities. Since 10 April, the Russian side of the Joint Coordination Center implementing the initiative had stopped registering vessels submitted by Ukrainian ports to form an inspection plan, AgriCensus wrote.

ports have been restricted and diverted into central Europe via its land borders. The resulting glut and price crash have hit local farmers hard.

Dombrovskis' announcement followed statements by EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski that the union could be close to implementing a temporary, limited ban on agricultural imports from

Ukraine to the five member states, while still allowing transit through these countries, the AgriCensus report said.

Wojciechowski added sunflower oil to the list of products included in the proposed ban, along with the other four, according to the report. These products accounted for about 90% of all imports from Ukraine into the EU.

In addition, Dombrovskis said that the EC would propose a €100M (US$109.32M) support package for affected farmers in the five member states, in return for the states’ withdrawal of their unilateral measures announced in April.

The proposal was subject to approval by other EU member states, the report said.

In a separate agreement, the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee agreed on 27 April to extend the suspension of EU import duties on Ukrainian exports for another year to support the country’s economy, AgriCensus wrote on 1 May. The suspension applies to fruits and vegetables subject to the entry price system, as well as agricultural products and processed agricultural products subject to tariff-rate quotas.

The extension is subject to approval by European Parliament members and the European Council.