Another EU country is revolting against Ukrainian grain: who else demands import ban

Spanish farmers are demanding a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain into the European Union. They complain that Ukrainian agricultural products have caused prices on the domestic market to fall significantly.

This was reported by the Union de Uniones de Agricultores y Ganaderos, which unites 30 farms representing the country's main producing regions. The organization emphasizes that in 2023, the supply of Ukrainian cereals to Spain amounted to almost 8.4 million tons, and in the first half of 2024 - about 6.5 million.

"This is more than half of the Ukrainian cereals supplied to the EU in general," the Union noted. Local producers cannot compete with Ukrainian products due to low prices, so prices for local cereals have fallen by 45% since May 2022.

In this regard, farmers protested in front of the European Union building in Madrid on September 23. The union warned that on September 25, another rally would be held in the capital, the main demand of the participants of which is to solve the problem of increasing grain imports from Ukraine.

In addition, the union appealed to the European Commission to take measures to protect European grain producers against what they call price speculation. In particular, they demand that the protective mechanisms include wheat.

As a reminder, the EU agreed to abolish all tariffs and quotas on imports of Ukrainian food products back in June 2022, which, among other things, is fully in line with the Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine. However, within a few months, farmers in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and other neighboring countries complained that the excess of Ukrainian imports was allegedly driving them out of the market.

These countries then unilaterally imposed an embargo on many goods, allowing them to be imported only for further transit, in violation of EU law. Despite this, in early 2024, EU member states extended the free trade regime for Ukraine until 2025.

At the same time, they introduced restrictions to reassure farmers. Thus, if the volume of imported products exceeds the average in 2022 and 2023, the bloc has the right to impose duties on the following Ukrainian products:

• poultry
• eggs
• sugar
• oats
• corn
• honey
• cereals (grain kernels)

As reported earlier, Polish authorities banned the import of hundreds of tons of agricultural products from Ukraine. During the summer season, frozen raspberries were banned the most often.

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