Polish farmers warn of spoiling Ukraine president visit on Wednesday

Polish farmers warn they could disrupt the planned visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, April 5, if the authorities do not meet their demands. They stand against the import of Ukrainian grain, Interia reports.

The Polish farmers' union Oszukana Wieś (Deceived Village) has reached an agreement with the government on 11 demands, including tighter border controls, compensation and discounted loans. However, on Monday they said that none of the points had been fulfilled.

"A large proportion of the goods go on without being checked. At best, every second wagon is checked. The term 'technical wheat' was rejected because it sounded bad. It was left without a name. We see that nothing has changed. Why would the Minister [of agriculture – ed.] give hope and lie to people," says Wiesław Gryn, a farmer and co-organiser of the protests.

A Polish trader, Andriy Abdulov, notes that the Polish authorities cannot physically restrict or ban imports of Ukrainian grain, as the Polish-Ukrainian border is the external border of the European community. However, Poland has already started using its internal levers of influence on the supply of Ukrainian grain.

"There are more thorough checks by the border services, veterinary and phytosanitary control authorities. For example, earlier, if there was a consignment of corn – 15 wagons – the veterinary service would check a couple of wagons selectively. Now they check every wagon. Instead of one letter of veterinary control, you have to wait for 15 letters to be issued. And this takes time. This is transport downtime. The cost of transport downtime + the price of grain = less willingness of importers to buy grain from Ukraine," explains Abdulov.

Farmers will protest on Tuesday, April 4, in Czerniczyn near Hrubieszów in Lubelskie Voivodeship.

"Warsaw should rethink this issue. If the minister (of agriculture – ed.) wants his visit to the capital on Wednesday to be spoilt, we can arrange that. Just like the visit of the Ukrainian president. But I don't think that's the point. There are many ideas, but it's too early to talk about it," said Marcin Sobczu, a representative of Oszukana Wieś.

Poland is considering imposing restrictions on grain imports from Ukraine and has sent a letter to the European Commission to take "radical decisions". Such measures are necessary to prevent imports from destabilising the situation in its domestic market.