Ukraine exports 1.5 mln tonnes of grain via Poland from Feb to Sept - media

Moscow. Nov 1 (Interfax) - Ukraine has shipped about 1.5 million tonnes of grain through Poland to other countries from the end of February to the end of September. This is much more than the pre-crisis figures but still cannot meet Ukraine's export potential due to the difference in railway gauges of these countries and the bottlenecks at the border crossings.

"Poland will continue to develop the export of Ukrainian agricultural products so that the grain reaches the Arab countries and North Africa," Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk is quoted by the Ukrainian mass media as saying in a statement, which was cited by the Polish publication Gospodarka Morska.

The minister said that Ukraine stated the need to export about 45 million tonnes of agricultural products before the end of February.

Kowalczyk asked European officials for help in increasing Ukrainian agricultural exports because the famine in Arab countries or North Africa could provoke waves of migration in the spring of 2023.

"It is in the common interest of the whole of Europe to deliver this grain there," the Polish official said.