On Friday, the agriculture ministers of Poland and Ukraine reached a preliminary agreement on resolving the grain crisis. However, representatives of the protesting farmers do not intend to end the protest.
“Nothing changes,” said Władysław Serafin, president of the Agricultural Circles Association, during an interview with RMF FM commercial radio. “We will not back down in Szczecin, Warsaw, or any other region, if the government does not postpone specific documents and regulations by April 15. We are not interested in political schemes and declarations. We will organize protests and blockades in every region,” he added.
As announced, a three-day protest is scheduled to begin at the Dorohusk border crossing on Wednesday, April 12. Farmers want to block the flow of goods from Ukraine to Poland.
On Friday, the new Polish minister of agriculture, Robert Telus, met with Mykola Solski, the minister of agricultural policy and food in Ukraine, in the Polish city of Dorohusk. During the meeting, the first decisions were made regarding Ukrainian grain.
According to Telus, Ukraine has agreed to review the issue of grain imports into Poland and will limit or even halt the arrival of grain to Poland for a certain period of time. The focus will be on wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds. Telus emphasized that this is not related to transit, which means these products will still flow through Poland but will not be stored in the country.
Additionally, detailed export restriction procedures will be developed at the next meeting, and exports will only be possible with the consent of the Polish side. The next steps will also address the issue of grain transit from Ukraine through Poland. Telus said he will ensure thorough inspections to prevent the entry of grain of uncertain quality into Europe and Poland.
Anger among Polish farmers over what they see as a threat to their livelihoods from Ukraine has been growing for weeks; last week, Poland’s beleaguered former agriculture minister, Henryk Kowalczyk, resigned.
Kowalczyk quit shortly before Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Warsaw for a visit, which he said showed that relations between the two neighbors, often strained in the past, had never been better.
