Over 450,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain being transported through Poland monthly

Over 450,000 tonnes of grain from Ukraine is being transported through Poland monthly, says infrastructure minister Andrzej Adamczyk.

That is 16 times more than in the same period last year and over 50% more than in the middle of this year, Adamczyk told the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development this week in a meeting on Poland’s efforts to help Ukraine overcome difficulties caused by Russia’s invasion.

“Such good results are possible thanks to the daily, huge effort undertaken by the Polish transport sector and public authorities,” said Adamczyk. “We are constantly working on improvements that increase the amount of Ukrainian goods, in particular agri-food products, exported through our territory.”

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain. However, Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports made exports much more difficult, leading to fears of global food shortages. Though the blockade was lifted in July, transport by sea remains more difficult than before.

Last month, Ukraine was able to export less than 3 million tonnes of grain, down from 4.2 million in October, according to Ukrainian infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.

Poland has taken various steps to both oppose Russia’s blockade and to facilitate transport through its own territory. However, the latter efforts have led to concerns among some Polish farmers about Ukrainian grain entering the domestic market and lowering prices.

On Thursday, a protest took place in the eastern Polish city of Lublin. Michał Kołodziejczak, the leader of farmers’ protest movement Agrounia, said that the price of maize has dropped by more than 40% in Poland in a fortnight, reports industry news service Wiadomości Rolnicze Polska.

“We know that we need to help Ukraine so that this war ends as soon as possible with a victory for Ukraine, a victory for free Europe over Russia,” said Kołodziejczak. “But we cannot run away from the subject” of the effect on prices received by Polish farmers.

Agrounia said data provided by the agriculture ministry show that 640,000 tons of grain was imported by Poland in the first half of 2022, reported Deutsche Welle, adding that Kołodziejczak has doubts about the official figures and suspects the numbers could be much higher.

Former agriculture minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party told the German broadcaster that no one really knows how much grain is coming across the border.

“We have no guarantee that the grain that was only supposed to pass through transit does not remain in Poland,” said Ardanowski, who left the government in 2020 amid a dispute with PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński.

“At the border, only the amount of grain imported by Polish companies is analysed,” added Ardanowski, who is now chairman of President Andrzej Duda’s Council for Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki assured farmers that checks would be carried out to ensure that grain designated only to transit through Polish territory was not entering the domestic market, reported Business Insider Polska.

Main photo credit: Robert Wiedemann / Unsplash

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.