The EU wants to beef up its logistics to export Ukrainian cereals

The European Union wants to beef up and subsidize its routes for transporting Ukrainian grain to the rest of the world after the end of transit via the Black Sea, but is still torn over the restrictions imposed by five eastern countries.

Russia having refused in mid-July to renew the agreement allowing cereals to be exported from Ukraine by sea, “it is absolutely necessary to improve and strengthen the + solidarity corridors + via Europe”, observed Tuesday the Spanish Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

“We cannot shirk our responsibility,” he insisted, on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels with his EU counterparts.

At the same time, the EU has developed land and river corridors, through Poland and Romania, through which 41 million tonnes of Ukrainian cereals have been transported. Now, this is the only export route for Ukraine.

To facilitate freight, a rail gauge harmonization project between the EU and Ukraine is underway.

But in the immediate future, to avoid saturation of the existing corridors, Lithuania proposes to use the ports of the Baltic States – with a combined annual capacity of 25 million tonnes for grain.

“We also need more efficient customs and administrative procedures, which can be done on arrival in European ports”, and not only at the Ukrainian border where “it takes time and works badly”, observed Lithuanian Minister Kestutis Navickas.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, however, believes that the biggest obstacle to exporting Ukrainian cereals via the EU remains the cost – much higher than the traditional sea route.

“Transporting grain via Poland or the Baltic countries will always be much more expensive than what Russia offers on the world market” for its own grain, he lamented, defending the idea of ​​European subsidies to fill this “attractiveness gap”.

“Some states like Poland have adopted aid at the national level, but I would prefer a European solution, fair for all (…) it is necessary to find funding (from the EU) to increase transport,” he said.

– “Collective discussion” –

For Mr Wojciechowski, this would also make it possible to release the pressure on the Member States bordering Ukraine, destabilized by the massive influx of Ukrainian agricultural products which for a time saturated their silos and weighed down local markets.

At the end of April, Brussels authorized five member states neighboring Ukraine (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania) to ban the marketing of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower on their territory, provided that they do not prevent their transit to other countries.

“Provisional” restrictions supposed to end on September 15, but which the five countries are now calling for to extend until the end of the year and to extend them to other products (raspberries, etc.) to protect their farmers.

Observing that these five countries are playing the game by facilitating transit to other countries, Janusz Wojciechowski is not closing the door to an extension of the restrictions, depending on harvest volumes and the state of the markets in September.

An “unacceptable” prospect according to kyiv, as for a large part of the Twenty-Seven, half of which had already strongly denounced in the spring these “distortions” within the common market.

“The Commission must make it clear that this is not possible, it is unacceptable that some member states are ignoring the treaties in force,” said German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, indignantly, as the five riparian countries were allocated 156 million euros in aid from the EU’s agricultural crisis reserve this year, while being authorized to distribute billions in public aid.

“There can be no unilateral measures, nor individual adventure (…) We must express our solidarity, but not at the cost of everyone for themselves”, added French Minister Marc Fesneau.

If he recognizes disturbances including on the French egg or poultry markets, he pleads for a “collective discussion”, in dialogue with Ukraine.