Poland can transship around a third of agricultural export volumes needed by Ukraine - Polish agriculture minister

MOSCOW. June 16 (Interfax) - Polish Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk has described U.S. President Joe Biden's idea to build temporary silos on the Ukraine-Poland border to expedite Ukrainian agricultural exports as interesting, but said that this idea is only a declaration for now, as a large number of concrete solutions will have to be worked out before it can be put into practice.

"U.S. President Joe Biden's statement about plans to build temporary bunkers [silos] in Poland on the border with Ukraine is a very interesting idea. But it is just a preliminary declaration for now, which requires the drafting of a large number of concrete solutions," Kowalczyk said on social media on Wednesday evening.

Poland can transship no more than 1.5 million tonnes of agricultural crops from Ukraine to third countries per month, whereas Ukraine's monthly exports of agricultural crops exceeded 5 million tonnes before February 24, the Ukrainian media quoted the Polish minister as saying.

Before the construction of such temporary silos may start, it is necessary to choose sites for them and decide how large they will be, as well as make decisions on support infrastructure, financial sources, on who will own these assets, etc., he said.

Any such silos should be build where Ukraine's broad-gauge rail tracks end, because narrow-gauge rail tracks are used across Poland, he said.

It may take 3-4 months to build these facilities, the Polish minister said.

As reported, U.S. President Biden said on June 14 that U.S. plans to build temporary silos in Poland on the border with Ukraine to facilitate Ukrainian grain exports to Europe by rail.

If this plan becomes a reality, it will help bring Ukrainian grain to Europe, from where it can be delivered to the rest of the world, Biden said.

"We are working closely with European partners to get 20 million tonnes of grain locked in Ukraine out onto the market," Biden said.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in an interview with the TVP media outlet that Ukraine is interested in exporting agricultural crops via Poland to third countries in the long term. Consequently, the possibility of extending broad-gauge rail tracks from Ukraine to the Gdansk Seaport in Poland is under consideration.

This project has already received tentative approval from the Polish and Ukrainian governments, Kaczynski said.

"Gdansk may become the main port for [Ukrainian] grain exports. It is also possible to extend broad-gauge rail tracks, which end in Slawkow in Silesia, to Gdansk along the coal transport route," he said.

As reported, the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada in early June proposed building 30 kilometers of broad-gauge rail tracks in Poland to facilitate direct shipments of grain to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, a move that will make it possible not to overload rail cars on the Ukraine-Poland and Poland-Lithuania borders due to the difference in the gauge of these countries' rail tracks.