Ukraine introduces "zero quotas" on natural gas exports for a year

The Ukrainian authorities have introduced "zero quotas" for exports of natural gas, coal, salt and gold for a year. This was reported by the official government portal on 25 December.

Under the new decree, the restrictions also apply to fuel wood, thermal coal and waste or scrap of precious metals.

In addition, the Ukrainian government has set quotas for the export of coking coal in the amount of 1.3 million tons and 400,000 tons for fuel oil. Licensing has also been introduced for the export of wheat, corn, sunflower seeds, sugar, poultry meat and a number of other agricultural goods.

Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka said that these measures were necessary to prevent a possible shortage of key goods on the domestic market of the country.

Earlier, on August 15, the Industrial Poultry Association of Bulgaria demanded from the Minister of Agriculture and Food Georgi Takhov to impose a ban on imports of eggs from Ukraine. The Ukrainian product is many times cheaper than the domestic product, and as a result, Bulgarian producers suffer millions of dollars in losses.

In April, European Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said that the European Union in 2023 received a profit of €16 billion from duty-free imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, but its agricultural sector lost €8.5 billion. According to him, European farmers pay for the liberalization of trade with Ukraine, which complicates the situation in the EU agriculture.

Farmers' protests continue in many EU countries amid falling incomes as a result of increased imports of agricultural products from Ukraine and restrictions by the authorities caused by the greenback. The protests have reached the highest scale in Poland.

In March this year, it was reported about the extension of duty-free import of products from Ukraine to the European Union until June 2025. The European Parliament noted at the time that the EU would regulate the volume of imported products, the restrictions will affect poultry meat, eggs, sugar, oats, corn and honey.