Poland's Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk has resigned after ongoing farmers' protests against the fall in prices caused by cheap Ukrainian grain imports. The basic demand of the farmers had not been met by the EU Commission, said Kowalczyk on Wednesday in his resignation statement.
The EU Commission has just presented a draft for the extension of duty- and quota-free grain imports from Ukraine for another year, Kowalczyk continued. Poland and four other EU member states from Central Eastern Europe had recently demanded from Brussels aid measures for farmers under pressure.
Protests in Poland and Bulgaria
Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain exporters. After the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Poland and other countries in the region offered to help transit Ukrainian grain to third countries, as Russia blocked traditional trade routes. However, there is a lack of onward transport – partly because the capacity of the Polish ports has been exhausted.
In Poland as well as in Bulgaria, there have been protests by farmers in recent days. They complain that cheap grain exports from Ukraine have led to price collapses. A few months before the start of the harvest, there is also concern that the warehouses are filled with Ukrainian grain and that they will not be able to cope with domestic production.