WARSAW, Apr 5 Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland Henryk Kowalczyk resigned due to a problem with Ukrainian grain.
«One of the points of the agreement with the farmers was the obligation that the Polish government will apply to the European Commission with a request to abolish the duty-free import of grain from Ukraine. Such an application was submitted on May 31 from the government of Poland together with the governments of Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. At the same time, the European Commission has published a project to continue the duty-free import of grain from Ukraine for the next year until June 5, 2024,» Kowalczyk told reporters.
“Since the main demand of the farmers will not be met, I have decided to resign. I wish success to my successor,” he said.
Earlier, Kowalczyk said that Poland is starting to buy grain for state money to cope with its influx from Ukraine, and expects to receive significant amounts from the funds that the European Union allocates to solve the problem of Ukrainian grain.
A number of Polish organizations uniting farmers, in particular «Agrouniya», protested that grain intended for export is imported from Ukraine to Poland, but settles in the republic, and also because inadequate quality of this grain. According to official data from the Polish side, over the past year, about 2 million tons of grain were imported into the republic from Ukraine.