Three Eastern European countries have banned grain imports from the war-torn country
A bitter row is playing out in Europe, said Leonie Kijewski on Politico (Brussels). Not, this time, over migrants or budget contributions – but over Ukrainian grain. When Russia first invaded Ukraine and blocked many of its exports, Brussels cut quotas and tariffs, and opened “solidarity lanes” to ensure that the country’s grain, so vital to its economy, could still reach the African and Asian markets where it was badly needed to avert a food crisis. But bottlenecks at EU ports have led to much of that grain remaining inside the bloc, where it has undercut local prices. That was tolerated for a while by eastern European countries; but this month, after weeks of protests from out-of-pocket farmers, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia slapped import bans on Ukrainian farm produce – putting themselves on a “collision course with Brussels”.
