Poland and Hungary on Saturday banned imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect local farmers, officials from both countries said.
Ukraine’s grain exports have been transiting through the European Union to other countries since the war-torn nation’s traditional Black Sea routes were blocked by Russia’s invasion.
But because of logistical issues, the grain had been piling up and driving down prices, which led to protests from farmers and the resignation of Poland’s agriculture minister.
“Today the government decided on a regulation to ban the entry, imports of grain into Poland, as well as of dozens of other kinds of food,” the governing party’s leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.
Otherwise “it would lead to a far-reaching crisis of Poland’s farming sector… We have to protect Polish agriculture,” he added.
Speaking at a convention of his right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party in the northern village of Lyse, Kaczynski stressed that Poland remained a staunch supporter of neighbouring Ukraine.
“We remain, without even the slightest change, friends and allies of Ukraine,” he said.dhngkfdvk