The European Commission has recorded a threefold drop in Ukrainian grain exports through Poland

The European Commission hopes to expand the capacity of the EU’s “solidarity corridors,” particularly through Poland, as the volume of traffic from Ukraine via this route has decreased threefold this year compared to last year. This was stated by European Commissioner for Transport Adina Veljan.

“In the case of Poland, if you look at the figures on how the volume of goods transported this year has changed compared to last year, you will see that it is three times less. This means that opportunities exist, but they are not fully utilized. For various reasons that we would not like to comment on. But we see that the opportunities are there,” said Adina Velian.

She noted that currently 60% of all transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products is carried out in Romania, as the use of its Danube ports and the port of Constanta is the most “natural” and profitable.

“We are looking at the expected volume of agricultural goods from Ukraine and compliance with obligations. Now we are expecting some improvements, for example, in October, at the Sulinsky Canal, in terms of its capacity. We plan to continue the good performance we have now,” the European Commissioner said.

She added that if the transit of Ukrainian grain through Poland increases, it is possible to increase its exports to 4 million tons per month.

“I have to say that there are still unused capacities in other (areas) of the ‘solidarity corridors’, for example, in Poland. We hope that with an increase in the use of these capacities, as it was at least in the beginning, because we saw a decline later, we will be able to increase the figures to 4 million tons (per month – ed.),” Adina Velian said.

As reported, following a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on September 4, Putin refused to return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, insisting that a number of preconditions be met.

As a reminder, on July 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially announced that without Russia’s participation, the Black Sea Initiative would cease to function on July 18. In order to continue it, Russia demanded that Rosselkhozbank be connected to the SWIFT system. At the same time, this bank did not play a major role in international grain trade before, but served the Russian defense industry. In addition, Russia demanded that the supply of spare parts and agricultural machinery be unblocked, and that ammonia exports through Odesa be resumed.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in May 2022, the EU launched “solidarity corridors” on its borders with Ukraine, which allowed Ukraine to continue exporting grain to the world market in the face of Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

Due to Russia’s blocking of the Grain Deal, the EU’s “solidarity corridors” through Europe’s land and inland waterways remained almost the only way for Ukraine to continue export and import operations.

Tags: Poland, Ukraine, export, grain