Romania and Ukraine to work on plan to limit imports of Ukrainian grain

Florin Barbu, the Romanian Agriculture Minister, announced on Wednesday, 20 September that Bucharest and Kyiv would work together for a month on a grain export control plan that will help protect Romanian farmers.

Source: European Pravda, citing Reuters

Details: The Romanian official said that within 30 days, after which the export control system in Ukraine should come into force, Romania will create a "clear import-licencing procedure for Romanian farmers and processors".

Quote: "I am confident that this mechanism proposed by the European Commission, taken on board by Ukraine and negotiated by us in farmers' interest, will fully function," Barbu added.

The Romanian Minister of Agriculture also said that Bucharest would issue import licences only to Romanian farmers and processors who need to replenish stocks and not to intermediaries, and that all imports would be checked for food safety.

Background: Romania is one of five Eastern European EU countries, along with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia that have experienced a sharp increase in imports of Ukrainian grain since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This distorted local markets and sparked protests from farmers, leading the EU to approve restrictions on imports of Ukrainian grain until 15 September, while allowing grain transit to other countries.

After that, instead of restricting imports to the EU, Ukraine proposed to the European Commission and the five countries an export control plan for four groups of crops – wheat, corn, sunflower and rapeseed – to protect their domestic markets.

Despite this, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced unilateral restrictions on Ukrainian imports, prompting Ukraine to file a complaint against these three countries with the World Trade Organisation.

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