Ukraine-Poland grain talks yield no decision - Ukrainian National Agrarian Forum head

MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian-Polish negotiations in Warsaw at the level of governments and agrarian associations is the beginning of a good story: Ukraine managed to reach an understanding on the exports of poultry, eggs, honey, sugar, berries and apple concentrate, but a grain memorandum has yet to be signed, Ukrainian National Agrarian Forum head Maria Didukh told Ukrainian media.

"We have finally started talking at the level of governments and associations. This is the first time that representatives of border protesters and associations sat down us with us, Ukrainian associations, for talks. [...] We faced each other and talked frankly," Didukh said.

In her words, the negotiators arrived at a common vision of EU quotas on Ukrainian poultry and eggs.

"This issue has been resolved. The Poles had nothing against that. Quite the opposite, they ramped up production in 2022-2023 thanks to cheap Ukrainian corn," she said.

Speaking of Ukrainian honey exports to Europe, Didukh said that Poland supported the reinstatement of quotas and their exclusion from the EU free trade system. Representatives of industry associations compared prices of manufacturers at the talks and found that Ukrainian goods were not sold at dumping prices. So, it was agreed to continue negotiations.

Another foodstuff sensitive for Europe, sugar, is in short supply, Didukh said. At the same time, Poland has numerous sugar beet growers and refiners. Ukraine is their rival. Still, sugar associations also agreed to continue talks next week under the aegis of Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Solsky and his Polish counterpart Czeslaw Siekierski.

"It is quite possible that sugar associations may reach consensus if they draft plans and delivery schedules to prevent the market of neighboring countries from being destabilized," Didukh said, adding that for now industry associations agreed to stop protesting against sugar imports.

The delivery of fresh and frozen raspberries to Europe, including Poland, was a separate item on the agenda. The Polish side noted that Ukrainian farmers supplied a large amount of raspberries to Polish processing enterprises at very low prices last season, while Ukrainian producers said low prices occurred once in every five years because of plentiful harvests, and 2023 was precisely a year of the kind.

According to Didukh, berry producers agreed to continue negotiations in Lithuania on April 5. The Lithuanian Parliament's Agrarian Committee will host a trilateral meeting of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland.

While analyzing the negotiations in general, she said the Ukrainian side got an impression that Poland found it very difficult to compete with Ukrainian agricultural products, as it was losing to the low cost of agricultural production in Ukraine that was not fully integrated into European laws.

Speaking of the resumption of grain exports to Poland, Didukh said there were no current supplies of wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseeds to Poland, same as to Bulgarian, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. None of Ukrainian trades has received the license to export such products to Poland, among others, since the imposition of national bans. There is nothing by transit of the four grains through those countries.

"We said we would agree to stop the grain transit. We understand the concern of Polish colleagues who need to export their own goods. Ukraine gathered information about the scope of transit and contracts signed earlier. All Ukraine needs to do is fulfill the transit contracts by which goods are mostly supplied outside the EU. Ukraine asked for continuing transit through Poland for two months," Didukh said.

Agrarian associations were close to signing a memorandum of mutual understanding and telling farmers in both states that Ukraine will stop transiting grain through Poland upon the fulfillment of the existent contacts. However, Polish Deputy Agriculture Minister Michal Kolodziejczak thwarted that stage of negotiations.

"Kolodziejczak led the negotiations into an impasse either intentionally or accidentally or under influence of some kind," Didukh said.