Poland would not hesitate to issue an order to block the import of Ukrainian grain if the European Commission refused to extend the grain embargo on Ukraine, according to Polish Development Minister Waldemar Buda.

Currently, the European Commission has given the green light to five EU member states who have placed a grain embargo on Ukraine, but Buda said during an interview with public radio PR 24 that he feared the EU commission was likely to end the embargo.

Nevertheless, the Polish government indicates it cannot allow Ukrainian grain imports at a time when Polish farmers have just completed their harvest and need to sell their produce. The grain embargo on Ukrainian products containing wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower imposed by Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia was agreed by the European Commission at the beginning of May. It was to last until June but was extended by the EU commission until Sept. 15.

  • zepheriths@lemmy.world
    25·
    1 year ago

    Why are they embargoing Ukraine? I would figure in the very least Poland could pass the grain to the next person, considering the massive shortage

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      211·
      1 year ago

      It’s pandering to local farmers for electoral support. Plus, it makes the EU mad which makes Duda look strong.

      • paddirn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        1 year ago

        So Poland and the EU are just as complicit as Russia in causing food shortages, to help farmers? Can’t they just transport it through their territory to get it somewhere else so it can at least make it out into the world, instead of getting destroyed at port by Russian attacks? I support Ukraine, but it seems like Europe and Russia are content to let Third world countries just deal with famine and starvation on their own.

        • Ooops@kbin.social
          13·
          1 year ago

          To be fair here: Poland did not try to limit the amount of grain for higher prices. Quite the opposite: they directed the farmers to increase output. And just when they did as they were told, Polands leadership realized that they are a too corrupt pile of shit to follow regulations. And so instead of being only transported through the country Ukrainian grain (that in no way is fullfillig EU requirements and thus shouldn’t even be allowed to be sold in Poland in the first place) is flooding the country and crashing the prize.

          The farmers being angry is natural because their prize is of course reasonable (they produce to much higher standards to meet EU guidelines which costs money).

          The joke here is the government who could either start prosecuting the corrupt guys at the top causing the illegal dumping of Ukraine grain into markets where existing standards should automatically restrict it… or they can ban Ukraine grain to pretend to protect their poor farmers (from their own corruption *cough* - oh, sorry. I meant from the evil EU trying to kill their market obviously…). And there are elections next month and that government is running on pure populism, propaganda and anti-EU/anti-Germany sentiments anyway (which for them is same as the EU is -as we all know- puppeteered by Germany in their attempt to build their 4th Reich - I’m paraphrasing actual comments from Polish officials here…). So it’s to nobodys surprise which option they chose.

          PS: As should have been obvious from my comment: No, it’s never actually “Poland and the EU”. It’s always poor Poland vs. the EU. Polands biggest government party has exactly that one topic and needs a lot of mental gymnastics for their “of course we want to stay in the EU but the EU is trying to destroy our country at every step” rhetoric to kind of work…

          • Johanno@feddit.de
            1·
            1 year ago

            I mean it’s not completely wrong that Germany is one of the leading countries in the EU

    • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
      5·
      1 year ago

      These countries aren’t traditional through-shippers of grain.

      European farmers want that grain exported to other continents instead of lowering local prices.

      • Ooops@kbin.social
        51·
        1 year ago

        European farmers want that grain exported to other continents instead of lowering local prices.

        Or in other words: European farmers want laws to be followed as they spend money to produce to EU standards and there is no way Ukrainian grain should be allowed to be sold for most applications anyway. Of course keeping corrupt shitheads at the top from violating regulations to dump Ukrainian grain into European markets is not an option for some countries… because those guys at the top do it with full knowledge of their government buddies.

  • downpunxx@kbin.social
    121·
    1 year ago

    there’s no grain shortage in any of the countries mentioned, there’s shortages in africa and the developing world, and the above mentioned countries farmers would rather not foot the bill in reduced grain prices, so the developing world can be fed while they starve, they would rather the rich eu nations pay them to allow grain to move through their countries, which is fair by anyone’s estimation. it’s all in the matter of who pays the bill, and how many africans the world feels should eat at any given time. it’s all money, the infrastructure is there for transport. it works fine.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      11·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, the infrastructure is there, but it’s under constant threat of bombing, so it could either get blown up or just stay put because it’s too unsafe to operate. What will possibly happen as a result of this is that Ukrainian grain will sit in Ukraine while Africa goes hungry, because Poland is still consuming the same amount of grain and there’s now less to go around.