Slovakia has become the third European country to pause imports of some Ukrainian agricultural products, amid fears a glut is pushing prices down and imperilling farmers, as Hungary threatened to extend a grain ban.
Sandor Farkas, the Hungarian agriculture minister, said on Monday that if the European Union does not take sufficient action to protect Hungarian farmers, Budapest might halt imports beyond June.
“Ukrainian grain imports got stuck in Hungary, driving down prices by about one-third, year on year,” he told parliament, saying he will use “all possible” means to protect Hungarian farmers from market disruptions.
Meanwhile, Slovakia said it will temporarily ban some farm imports – but not grain – from Ukraine as other countries in central and eastern Europe said they were considering action.
Amid a recent surge in cheap Ukrainian agricultural goods within the bloc, officials from Poland and Hungary earlier announced bans on the import of Ukrainian grains to protect their own farmers’ interests.
The leader of Poland’s governing party, Jarosław Kaczyński, said that the Polish countryside is facing a “moment of crisis,” and that while Poland supported Ukraine, it was forced to act to protect its farmers.
The European Commission has rejected the bans and said in a statement that the “EU’s trade policy is of exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable”.
Source: Aljazeera.com
