Polish farmers suspend border blockade with Ukraine for two weeks

Polish farmers have temporarily suspended the blockade of the border with Ukraine that started the day before. This was reported by RMF FM on Sunday, November 24.

According to the radio station, the farmers and Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Seckerski, who met with them, reached an agreement. It was agreed that the farmers would send their demands to the ministry.

"Czeslaw Seckerski said he would prepare a response by December 10," the publication said.

In case negotiations with the government fail, the farmers intend to hold mass protests along the entire eastern border of the country, the radio station specified. The main demands of the protesters are to stop negotiations with the Mercosur states on free trade and refuse to increase taxes for agricultural producers.

Earlier, on November 23, Polish farmers began blocking the movement of trucks through the Medyka-Szegyni checkpoint on the border with Ukraine. According to the customs service, it was announced about the restriction of truck traffic to enter Ukraine - one truck per hour and to leave Ukraine - the movement of trucks weighing more than 3.5 tons is blocked completely.

The crisis in relations between Poland and Ukraine is also due to the influx of Ukrainian agricultural products to Polish markets. On 22 October, a representative of the Polish National Movement party, Tomasz Buczek, said that Ukraine was destabilizing the Polish agricultural market, adding that the current situation had created unequal competition for Polish agrarians.

In August, Marian Sikora, chairman of the Polish Federation of Sectoral Associations of Agricultural Producers, said that Polish authorities feared that the €400m funding allocated for European farmers might be redirected to help Ukraine.

Back in May, Poland canceled negotiations with Ukraine on agriculture. Before that, it was reported that the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Ukrainian Agrarian Policy Minister Mykola Solskyy due to allegations of corruption.

In February, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that the losses of European agriculture from the simplification of trade rules with Ukraine over the previous two years amounted to €19bn. According to him, prior to the conflict, Ukrainian exports were mainly going to Asia and Africa. The EU commissioner called for the development of measures to redirect goods from Ukraine to traditional markets.

In 2022, the EU allowed Kiev to supply food to the association countries duty-free, which hit farmers in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and some other countries. These countries unilaterally imposed an embargo on grain supplies from Ukraine to their domestic markets.