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The European Commission should allocate subsidies for Ukrainian companies that export grain through the ports of the European Union. Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said this at a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture, a FREEDOM correspondent reports.
He stressed that this is only his opinion, but he hopes that the European Commission will take an appropriate decision.
According to Wojciechowski’s calculations, the amount of the subsidy could be 30 euros per ton of grain. In total, about 600 million euros are needed to export about 20 million tons of grain from Ukraine.
At the same time, the European Commissioner believes that the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain to five countries neighboring Ukraine, which expires on September 15, should be extended, otherwise it will lead to great damage to their producers.
“This problem is 100% due to unprovoked Russian aggression. After it began, the Black Sea route, which was the main one for Ukraine, was blocked,” Voitsekhovsky emphasized.
Before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, agricultural exports from Ukraine to the European Union amounted to 7 billion euros. After the invasion, it grew by 6 billion euros. Of this growth, about 5 billion euros are accounted for by five neighboring countries, which causes a shock in their markets.
Ukraine expects a harvest of 56 million tons of grain. The EU can secure a monthly export of 4 million tons of grain through the “solidarity lines”, but the problem is that Ukrainian grain can hardly reach its traditional markets due to changes in logistics, which makes its transportation more expensive.
Voitsekhovsky proposed to “support transit and continue the ban until the end of the year.”
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