Such prospects are causing serious concern among Polish grain producers. “This is an extremely unfavorable situation for our farmers. If such agreements are reached, instead of clearing our market of surpluses, the ports will ship Ukrainian grain instead of Polish grain to our main buyers, whom we have been supplying for many years,” said Marcin Wroński, vice chairman of the Polish farmers’ union “Samoobrona.”
For its part, the Polish Association of Grain Producers has appealed to the Minister of Agriculture to clarify any possible plans to increase the transit of Ukrainian grain through Poland. Polish farmers and opposition politicians were particularly alarmed by remarks from Vasyl Bodnar, Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, who stated that negotiations between Kyiv and Warsaw regarding grain transit should not be made public. “This issue is highly politicized and provokes an extremely emotional reaction—just like historical issues. We need to work at the expert level, and if a solution is found, it will need to be announced. For now, this topic should not be brought into the public domain,” the Ukrainian diplomat said.
However, today, August 18, in an interview with a Polish media outlet, the Ukrainian ambassador stated that he allegedly had no information about any dialogue on this topic.
In response to Bodnar’s statements, Anna Bryłka, a Member of the European Parliament from the Polish opposition party “Confederation,” submitted an inquiry to Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski. She demanded clarification on what guarantees exist that shipments declared as transit cargo will actually leave Polish territory, and how each shipment of Ukrainian grain will be monitored. “Poland has experience from 2022–2023, when mechanisms originally created to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products led to a significant increase in their presence on the Polish market,” noted Anna Bryłka.
Is Ukrainian grain already flooding the Polish market?
Former Polish Minister of Agriculture Robert Telus stated on WNET radio that there are currently all signs that “Ukrainian grain is flooding Poland.”
“Today, we cannot be sure that the grain in Poland isn’t Ukrainian. After all, it can pass through Romania and Bulgaria and end up in Poland. We have indications that it is flooding our country, and the current government is doing nothing about it,” the former minister said.
As Logos Press previously reported, the current Minister of Agriculture, Stefan Kraevsky, assures that the Polish authorities are doing everything possible to ensure that Ukrainian grain does not remain in Poland.
At the same time, many participants in the discussion acknowledge that Warsaw remains under pressure from the European Commission regarding its unilateral maintenance of import restrictions on agricultural products from Ukraine. The European Commission expects Poland to lift these restrictions. If the negotiations do not yield the results expected by the European Commission, it may decide to initiate legal proceedings against Poland for violating EU law.
In 2022–2023, Poland was rocked by mass protests by farmers who opposed the import of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine into the country. In particular, they blocked railroads and border crossings. The situation led to serious disruptions in the Polish grain market and put significant pressure on prices, and local producers continued to feel the effects of the crisis for a long time afterward.
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