Ukrainian agricultural products can only pass through Poland in transit

• The KRIR letter regarding Ukrainian products was written at the request of the Council for Young Farmers at the Chamber and published on Tuesday on the website of the Chambers of Agriculture.
• As the Ministry of Agriculture recalled in reference to this letter, the ban on the import of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower from Ukraine to Poland was introduced in mid-April 2023, and from mid-September last year. – also some products of their processing (wheat flour, middlings, bran, rapeseed cake). This ban is valid until further notice.
• The ministry explained that only transit is allowed, but it must meet certain conditions and is monitored by the National Tax Administration.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development indicated that only the transit of these products from Ukraine through the territory of Poland is allowed, provided that this transit ends in sea ports in Gdańsk, Gdynia, Świnoujście, Szczecin or Kołobrzeg or outside the territory of the Republic of Poland. Transit is closely monitored by the National Tax Administration.

Control services under the microscope of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

The ministry noted that a review of control procedures carried out by customs services, the Veterinary Inspection, the State Sanitary Inspection and the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection is currently underway in order to tighten controls and ensure that Ukrainian goods are checked thoroughly at the border.

We are of the opinion that the acceleration of border controls proposed by the European Commission or Ukraine cannot result in a lowering of their standards and an increase in the potential threat to consumer safety – wrote the ministry.

Changes in ATM

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that the European Commission in January this year proposed to amend the rules on the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU (ATM) for the next year (i.e. from June 6, 2024 to June 5, 2025) in order to strengthen the protection of sensitive EU agricultural products. For products such as sugar, eggs and poultry, the EC has proposed a limit on duty-free imports from Ukraine to the EU at the level of 2022 and 2023. This means that if this import volume is exceeded, import duties will be introduced again.

“These proposals go in the right direction, however, Poland submits proposals to the EU for their further modification so that the proposed mechanism protects sensitive sectors even better. We propose, among other things, the adoption of a different reference period (2019-2021 or 2020-2022) instead of the one proposed by EC for the period 2022-2023, which would result in lowering the threshold above which the Commission reinstates customs duties,” we read in the response of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Ministry announced that in 2022, imports of apple juice concentrate (KSJ) from Ukraine amounted to 37.3 thousand tons. tons (total KSJ import amounted to 55.3 thousand tons). In 2023, imports from Ukraine decreased to 19.2 thousand. tons (i.e. 49% less year on year) and accounted for 54%. total import of this product to Poland.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also provided data on imports of other agricultural products from Ukraine.

And so wheat imports

• in 2021 – amounted to 2.4 thousand tone;
• w 2022 r. – 502,1 tys. ton,
• w 2023 r. – 337,5 tys. ton;

corn – respectively:

• w 2021 r. – 5,9 tys. t;
• w 2022 r. – 1848 tys. t,
• w 2023 r. – 594,2 tys. t;

rapeseed respectively:

• w 2021 r. – 86 tys. t,
• w 2022 r. – 662,2 tys. t,
• w 2023 r. 73,4 tys. t;

sunflower

• 2021 r. – 4,5 tys. t,
• 2022 r. – 18,5 tys. t,
• 2023 r. – 1,6 tys. t;

sugar

• 2021 r. – 0 0 t,
• 2022 r. – 33,3 tys. t,
• 2023 r. – 38,2 tys. t.;

poultry meat

• 12 tys. t,
• 21,3 tys. t,
• 15,6 tys. t;

frozen raspberries

• 17,1 tys. ton;
• 22,2 tys. t,
• 24,9 tys. ton.