Polish farmers lift blockades at all Ukraine crossings

4 months ago 21

Polish farmers have lifted blockades at border crossings with Ukraine, officials said Monday, ending a two-month protest over farm imports from the war-torn neighbouring country.

Farmers had blocked border crossings with Ukraine since February to protest at what they said was unfair competition from goods that undercut local market prices.

Disputes over farm imports have strained ties between the neighbours, even as Poland has shown staunch support for Ukraine over Russia’s invasion.

“The traffic through all the border crossings (with Ukraine) is possible,” Michal Derus, a spokesman for the tax administration chamber in Poland’s Lublin region told AFP after farmers ended the last blockade at the Hrebenne border crossing.

The crossing reopened after local authorities in Hrebenne declined to extend permission for protests at the checkpoint.

“All trucks are allowed to pass as long as they are not carrying sanctioned goods,” Derus added, referring to the grain imports from Ukraine that Poland imposed a temporary embargo on.

Ukraine has seen its agriculture sector crippled by Russia’s 2022 invasion. Many of its major export routes through the Black Sea have been blocked and much farmland left unusable by warfare.

In a bid to help Kyiv economically, the European Union in 2022 scrapped tariffs on Ukrainian goods transiting the 27-nation bloc by road.

But many Ukrainian cereal exports destined for non-EU countries have accumulated in Poland and elsewhere, undercutting local producers.