The flood of Ukrainian grain into the Member States near the Ukrainian border has caused serious internal market disruption.Continue reading
The Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, and Romanian Prime Ministers and the Bulgarian President have sent a joint letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asking the European Commission to take immediate action to tackle the unsustainable situation caused by increased grain imports from Ukraine, Agriculture Minister István Nagy announced.
The minister said that the Russo-Ukrainian war and the increased energy prices and input costs caused by the “misguided Brussels sanctions” in response to it are also hitting European farmers very hard.
In the member states bordering Ukraine, including Hungary, this is compounded by the unprecedented volumes of grain and oilseed imports that are entering and remaining in these countries. In addition,
Ukrainian agriculture, which enjoys full duty-free access to the European market, has started to export large quantities of poultry, eggs, and honey, which is squeezing Hungarian products out of their traditional markets and driving down farmers’ selling prices below the level of production costs,”
István Nagy said.
The minister added that in order to immediately help farmers facing sales problems due to Ukrainian imports, they are calling for an increase in the amount of funds available for exceptional support, with the involvement of additional resources, because it is clear that the situation cannot be resolved with the resources available for this purpose under the Common Agricultural Policy and from national budgets.
Also, in order to address the situation in the short term, they ask the European Commission to examine the possibility of the EU buying up cereals stored in border member states for humanitarian purposes, which have been produced and cannot be sold due to the fall in prices caused by imports.
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