In new wave of protests, Polish farmers stage blockades over Ukrainian imports
Polish farmers on Friday (9 February) blocked roads and staged protests at border checkpoints with Ukraine, in a new wave of protests against farming imports from the neighbouring war-torn country.
Poland has been among Ukraine staunchest supporters during Russia’s nearly two-year invasion, but economic frictions have soured ties between the allies.
Farmers in Poland say that opening the European Union’s market to Ukrainian agricultural products has brought down prices and caused unfair competition.
On Friday farmers started protests at border crossings and blocked highways, snarling traffic with columns of slow-moving tractors converging on major cities.
“We have no other choice,” Marcin Wilgos, organiser of the protest in Dorohusk at the border with Ukraine told AFP, as he spoke next to a banner calling on the EU to introduce bans on Ukrainian grain and sugar.
“The glut of products from Ukraine, produced not in accordance with EU standards and procedures, is a huge burden for us,” Wilgos, a 40-year-old farmer said.
The action is organised in at least 250 locations by Poland’s main farming union who said it would continue until 10 March.
Asked about the protests, Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski told state radio on Friday that the farmers had “legitimate expectations and demands” to limit excessive imports from Ukraine.
Poland banned Ukrainian grain imports under the previous right-wing government and maintained it despite a new pro-EU coalition coming to power in an October election.
Siekierski said Poland was in bilateral talks with Ukraine to resolve the issue, but did not rule out new bans concerning other groups of products.
“It may be needed for sugar, if the influx is too large. It may be needed for poultry,” Siekierski said, adding that the government intended to raise the issue in talks with Kyiv.
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