The Hungarian government will protect farmers and, if necessary, close the border to some grain products coming from Ukraine from September 16, Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy told the Transit political festival in Tihany.
“If the EU does not extend the import ban on some Ukrainian grain products, which expires on September 15, Hungary will impose an import ban not only on four products, but on all 24 previous products in order to protect the domestic market,” the Hungarian publication agrarszektor.hu quoted the minister as saying.
According to him, Hungary’s agriculture has experienced one shock after another in recent years. The coronavirus epidemic, drought, the war raging in the neighborhood and its consequences, the energy crisis, and the fact that cheap Ukrainian agricultural products have flooded the European market duty-free are all difficulties for producers, he said.
“Although the harvest is better – a near-record amount of corn is expected this year – sales are facing difficulties due to cheap competition,” Nagy added.
As reported, Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telusz said after a meeting of a coalition of five frontline countries in Poland on Friday that the position of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania on the need to extend restrictive measures against Ukrainian wheat, rapeseed, corn and sunflower remains unchanged – a ban until the end of 2023.
The European Commission on June 5 agreed to extend until September 15 the restrictions on wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower exports from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. “The restrictions do not mean a ban on the transit of these goods through Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the document signed by EC chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
Source: https://www.agrarszektor.hu/szabalyozas/20230827/nagy-istvan-fenntartjuk-a-behozatali-tilalmat-44906
