Control over transit shipments of Ukrainian agriculture products to be carried out on border

MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax) - The transit of agricultural products from Ukraine via Poland will resume from Saturday, April 21, and control over such shipments will be carried out on the border, Ukrainian Agrarian Policy Minister Nikolai Solsky said.

Transit shipments of Ukrainian agricultural products through Polish territory will be monitored using Poland's SENT electronic cargo tracking system, he said.

"The Poles will be able to verify what is actually happening - that it is transit, not import - if there is a request from society. The tracking system shows that a vehicle or a train is heading to a port or other countries of the EU," Ukrainian media quoted Solsky as saying at a press briefing on Wednesday.

During the first week, if the Polish side wishes so, its customs officers may physically accompany such transit shipments "in order to be able to draw their own conclusions," he said.

Any company "that is willing to sell something to Germany can do it [transit its cargo] starting from today," the minister said.

Poland accounted for 10% of Ukraine's overall agricultural exports, Solsky said, adding that half of this amount was transit, and the other half was imported by Poland itself.

"Out of Western countries, Romania handles the largest amount of transit, while Slovakia sees the lowest level of transit. Poland was in second place after Romania in terms of export and internal consumption," the minister said.

"If we speak about Hungary, it is 5%-6%, 1.5% for Slovakia, and tens of percentage points for Romania, 90% of which is transit," Solsky said.

The ministry is still calculating Ukraine's potential losses due to problems with export.