Mr. Dykun, the Head of the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), addressed the Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Lins, to consider the issue of further preferential treatment of Ukrainian agricultural goods.
The reason for the appeal to the European Parliament Committee was the statement of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Poland Janusz Kowalski regarding the meeting of the EU Council of Ministers of Agriculture, which is scheduled to discuss Poland's proposal to renew duties on corn, chicken, and apples from Ukraine, as well as strict control of all grain imports from Ukraine. This includes technical grain.
According to Regulation No. 870, the regime will be applied until June 5, 2023. However, it is important for Ukraine to preserve it and extend it further, as the agricultural sector is a key component of the Ukrainian economy.
Before Russia's war against Ukraine, the agricultural sector accounted for 20% of the country's GDP. In 2022, it became the basis of Ukrainian exports and a guarantor of foreign exchange earnings from trade. Agricultural products accounted for 53% of total exports, and the total value of products, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, amounted to more than $23 billion.
"The cancellation of the preferential regime for Ukrainian producers in the context of war, when the agricultural sector is suffering from losses due to constant missile attacks by the aggressor, crop losses and the inability to conduct a full spring sowing season due to millions of hectares of minefields, and Russia's blocking of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, is a blow to the state's economy and a threat to the future of Ukraine," said Andriy Dykun.
According to Mr. Norbert Lins, most MEPs support the course of EU market liberalization chosen for Ukraine, despite all the difficulties that arise, in particular for Ukraine's neighbors, starting with Poland.
"According to Poland, the export of Ukrainian grain brings down the prices of their products, and this is a real problem, so we will look for the ways to solve this issue and tools to compensate for the losses of Polish farmers to continue to help Ukraine," said the head of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Norbert Lins and Andriy Dykun agreed that the situation when Ukraine cannot fully export grain only through the Black Sea ports and must carry out logistics, in particular through the territory of Poland, affects the domestic market of its neighboring countries. However, during the war, the preferential treatment of Ukrainian agricultural goods should continue.
Mr. Lins and Mr. Dykun also discussed the creation of an international fund to restore Ukraine's agricultural sector. The purpose of the fund is to provide guarantees to commercial banks so that farmers from the de-occupied territories can take out loans to rebuild farms destroyed by Russians, destroyed or stolen equipment, and restore livestock.
Particular attention was focused on the need for assistance with demining equipment, as Ukraine is now the largest mined area in the world, which poses a danger not only to the movement of civilians but also to the spring sowing season and the provision of food to the population in Ukraine and the world's dependent countries. In particular, well over 400 million people living in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
The Head of the Ukrainian Agri Council thanked Mr. Lins, who represents Germany, for his country's support of people from Ukraine who were forced to seek refuge abroad and for the opportunity to bring important issues to the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development to help Ukrainian farmers.
