Polish dairy processors are concerned about the closure of their market for the export of Ukrainian dairy products and expect the use of the reciprocity principle, which will lead to a drop in imports of Polish dairy products by Ukraine, the analytical agency Infagro reported.
“Today I am most afraid of the use of the principle of reciprocity of Ukraine in trade relations with Poland. If Ukraine closes its market for us, we will find ourselves in a very difficult situation. Today 6% of all our cheese exports go to Ukraine. The volume of imports of dairy products to Poland from Ukraine was small compared with Polish exports to Ukraine. Therefore, the income and loss account is obvious,” Agnieszka Maliszewska, vice president of COGECA and director of Izba Mleka (Poland) was quoted by the agency.
Her concerns are shared by Marcin Gidzik, president of Polish Milk Processors Association. According to the principle of reciprocity, we can expect Polish exports to slow down unless other agreements are reached between the Ministers of Agriculture,” he said in an interview with portalspozywczy.pl.
According to his information, in January-March 2023 Ukraine exported to Poland 1 ton of products marked with code CN 0401 – non concentrated milk and cream without added sugar, 60 tons of butter or other milk fats and 710 tons of milk powder.
In the same period Poland exported 2,213 tons of cheese, 1,080 tons of whey and 1,312 tons of fermented products to Ukraine.
