WARSAW, 14 Feb. Ministry of Agriculture and development of rural areas in Poland does not rule out a blockade of imports of certain categories of goods from Ukraine, said the head of the department, Czeslaw Sekierski, on ZET radio.
““In some cases,” he said.
This is how the minister answered the question whether Poland could introduce restrictions on the supply of all goods from Ukraine.
According to Sekersky, an embargo on some goods may be introduced if instability is detected in the markets. Among such potential products, he named sugar, honey and chicken.
According to the head of the department, Polish farmers are “protesting for a just cause.” As Sekierski indicated, he does not support the protests, but understands their reasons.
On Friday, a nationwide protest of farmers began. They are protesting throughout the country, blocking roads and entrances to checkpoints on the border with Ukraine. Activists reported that Polish farmers spilled grain from Ukrainian trucks at the Dorohusk checkpoint. On February 20, protesters promised to block all border crossings with Ukraine.
Polish-Ukrainian relations have become significantly more complicated due to the embargo on grain from the post-Soviet republic. On September 15, 2023, the European Commission decided not to extend restrictions on the import of four types of Ukrainian agricultural products into several EU border countries, but obliged Kyiv to introduce export control measures. After this, the authorities of Slovakia, Hungary and Poland announced that they were extending the ban unilaterally. In this regard, Ukraine filed a complaint with the WTO. In response, three EU countries announced that they would boycott meetings of the coordination platform on Ukrainian grain.