Poland has decided to temporarily not carry out veterinary control of feed of plant origin (including forage grain cargoes) in transit through its territory to third countries, which will allow Ukraine to export agricultural crops through the Rava Ruska-Werhrata border crossing.
The corresponding simplified grain export regime began to operate on May 31, Valeriy Tkachev, deputy director of the commercial work department of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
“This means that such goods can be imported into Poland through any checkpoints – both railway and land. When imported, these goods will be subject only to customs border control. Thus, the transfer of wagons with grain cargo through the border crossing Rava Ruska – Verhrata is allowed . This will increase the export of grain from Ukraine!”, he wrote on the social network.
As reported, on May 17, Ukraine and Poland agreed on the possibility of transit of grain crops through joint border inspection posts, as well as on ensuring its rail transit through the border checkpoints Verkhrata – Rava Ruska, Medica – Shehyni and Krostsenko – Smolnitsa.
In addition to ensuring the possibility of transit of Ukrainian grain through Polish border checkpoints, the parties agreed to increase the number of Polish veterinary inspectors on the border with Ukraine to 19 people, as well as to change their work schedule to round-the-clock at the busiest border checkpoints.
Earlier, on May 11, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development of Poland agreed to improve logistics capabilities at the joint border.
The EU is working on the creation of solidarity lines for the export of grain from Ukraine, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said.
She has said that 20 million tonnes of wheat are stuck in Ukraine and must be taken out. Therefore, they have created and are working hard on solidarity lines that will make it possible to take out batches of this wheat through land routes and trains to their ports. This is not trivial and, of course, more tiring and more expensive, but it is necessary to take this grain out, von der Leyen said at a press conference following the Special Meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Tuesday.
The UK is working with international partners to find ways to resume grain exports from Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said on Saturday.
According to The Guardian, according to her, the UK was involved in “intensive work … with international partners to find ways to resume the export of grain from Ukraine to avert a global food crisis.”
Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and told him that London would work with G7 partners to ” push for urgent progress” on the issue.
During the conversation, they also agreed on the next steps to ensure “safe shipping lanes.”
The value of Ukrainian agricultural exports for the two months of the war with Russia (March-April) amounted to $ 1.74 billion, while in January-February the supply of such products brought 3.2 times more revenue – $ 5.68 billion, for January-April the country exported $ 7.42 billion worth of agricultural products
The key commodity groups in agricultural exports from Ukraine are traditionally cereals and oilseeds, vegetable oils and fats, waste from the processing industry and meat products, according to the website of the Institute of Agrarian Economics (IAE) on Monday.
According to the agency, agricultural products continue to be the main source of foreign exchange earnings for Ukraine’s foreign trade: in January-April 2022, its share in total exports exceeded 44%.
Despite the Russian military invasion, exports of agricultural products from Ukraine in January-April 2022 still exceed the figures for the first four months of 2021 by 3%, this excess is due to significant intensity of exports in January-February 2022 and a record harvest of 2021, the largest since the country’s independence.
“Today Ukraine still exceeds last year’s record food exports. However, Russia’s ongoing aggression, hostilities, occupation of territories in different regions of our country and blocking of seaports significantly reduce domestic foreign sales potential. Final export figures will depend on liquidity. , – quotes IAE deputy director of the institution Nikolai Pugachev.
It was reported that before the Russian military invasion, Ukraine exported up to 5 million tons of agricultural products per month through the ports of Odessa and Nikolaev, but now due to their naval blockade by Russia, the country can transport about 500 thousand per month. tons of grain. This leads to a monthly shortfall of about $ 1.5 billion in export earnings.
Since the beginning of the 2021/2022 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of May 19, Ukraine has exported 46.51 million tons of cereals and legumes, which is 13.8% higher than on the same date of the previous MY. A total of 18.54 million tons of wheat was exported to foreign markets (18.7% more than in the same period of 2020 / 2021MG), 21.83 million tons of corn (+ 6.9%), 5.68 million tons of barley (+ 37.2%), 70.6 thousand tons of flour (-35.7%).
22 million tons of food have been blocked in Ukrainian ports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Kyiv on Saturday after meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
“Russia has blocked all maritime opportunities to export food products – our grain, barley, sunflower. 22 million tons have been blocked by the Russian Federation, “he said.
“And, to be honest, they are stealing slowly. Grain is taken out of ports and somewhere. We know what “somewhere” is, “Zelensky said.
According to him, Ukraine “works at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the level of conscience, it is impossible to work with these countries, so we work differently. ”
Zelensky noted that “it can be unblocked in different ways. One of them is military. That is why we are asking our partners for such requests for appropriate weapons, and Portugal is no exception. “
In January-April 2022, Ukraine increased its revenue from electricity exports by 2.6 times (by $87.11 million) compared to the same period in 2021, to $141.05 million, according to the State Customs Service.
According to Interfax-Ukraine estimates, over the four months, electricity was supplied to Slovakia for $48.968 million, Hungary – for $40.408 million, Romania – for $29.274 million, other countries – for $22.4 million.
In April this year, electricity export revenue amounted to $1.108 million compared to $31.125 million in April 2021.
In addition, Ukraine in January-April 2022 imported electricity for $102.114 million against $54.321 million for the same period in 2021, in particular from Belarus – for $100.414 million, Slovakia – for $873,000, Romania – for $491,000, other countries – for $336,000.
In April this year, Ukraine imported electricity for $1,000 against $6.926 million in April 2021.
