Hungary bans imports of 25 types of agricultural products from Ukraine

Hungary’s Minister of Agriculture István Nagy reported this.

“The government is committed to defending the interests of the Hungarian farming community, so in the absence of meaningful EU measures, it is temporarily banning, like Poland, the import of grain and oilseeds, as well as a number of other agricultural products from Ukraine to Hungary,” Nagy wrote.

The Hungarian minister said that agricultural producers in Ukraine use methods that are banned in the European Union, which allows them to avoid unnecessary costs and export large quantities of poultry, eggs and honey to the market, along with grains and oilseeds.

As a result, Central European farmers are unable to sell their own products, Nagy added.

DW quotes the Hungarian government as saying that the import ban will last until June 30, 2023.

According to the publication, Budapest expects the EU to reconsider the temporary abolition of duties on Ukrainian goods and ensure fair market conditions for European agriculture by this deadline. 

• On March 29, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki said that Poland promised to introduce rules that would limit the inflow of Ukrainian grain to the country, explaining that it could destabilize the import market.
•  Later, оn April 15, Poland approved a ban on the import of Ukrainian grain and other food products to Poland. The government emphasized that this decision does not change the country's position on support and friendship with Ukraine.
• In Romania, farmers are demanding a ban on grain imports and transit from Ukraine, threatening a nationwide protest.
• On April 16, media reported that Bulgaria was also considering refusing to import Ukrainian grain, after Hungary and Poland had already made this decision.
•  On the same day, a spokesman for the European Commission said that unilateral actions by EU member states on trade were unacceptable.
• On April 18, it became known that Poland would receive EUR 30 million in aid from the EU amid the crisis with Ukrainian grain. 
• After that, Warsaw decided to unblock the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products to European ports on April 21.
• Also on April 16, Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solskyi held an online meeting with Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy, who assured him that Hungary would not stop the transit of Ukrainian grain.
• On April 17, Slovakia became the third EU country to ban imports of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products.
• Vitaliy Kulyk, Director of the Center for Researching Civil Society Problems, believes that Ukraine is responsible for the oversaturation of the Eastern European market with agricultural products.