07/03/2023 14:34 | Analysis
Most of Ukraine’s grain is not for human consumption, European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in a letter to Norbert Lins, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament. The letter is dated June 28. Thus, it brings a new dimension to the recent discussions about the harmfulness of grain imported from Ukraine. In a letter available to ParlamentníListy.cz, the Eurocommissioner also urges: Food from Ukraine must be checked.
Jan Rychetsky
Description: Headquarters of the European Commission
“Currently, most of the grain available in Ukrainian stocks is not suitable for human consumption and logistics costs through solidarity lines are not competitive for World Food Program purchases,” we read, among other things, in a letter dated June 28 of this year, sent by European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis to Norbert Lins, Chairman of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament. Dombrovskis further expressed his belief that agricultural products imported from Ukraine should be subject to health checks. In the letter, the Eurocommissioner responds to the initiatives of the Agriculture Committee, which sent him a letter at the end of April this year through its chairman Lins, in which he drew attention to the danger of destabilization of the European market as a result of the suspension of import duties on the export of agricultural products from Ukraine. In April, Lins suggested, among other things, that “the Commission should consider buying wheat in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Program to ensure its actual shipment to Africa and the Middle East.”
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The editors of ParlamentníListy.cz managed to obtain the letter from MEP Norbert Lins, as well as Dombrovskis’ subsequent reply.
European Union temporarily suspended import duties on all agricultural and food products imported from Ukraine in June of last year in an attempt to support the Ukrainian economy in the war against Russia. The transportation of Ukrainian grain through the so-called solidarity routes was supposed to replace the ports in the Black Sea blocked as a result of war operations. The duty-free import regulation, which was originally adopted for a period of 12 months, was subsequently decided by the EU Council extended for another year this May. And this despite considerable criticism from some member states.
A large part of cheap Ukrainian grain, which was supposed to flow through European countries to Africa and the Middle East, remained in Europe, which caused protests by local farmers, especially in the nearest transit countries, i.e. Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. “We do not agree that this grain should enter the Polish and Romanian markets in large quantities and destabilize our markets,” declared Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in March. Bulgarian farmers, who have staged blockades of border crossings to protest a flood of cheap Ukrainian grain, have failed to sell an estimated 40% of their crop this year, according to their estimates. Negotiations between member states and the European Commission eventually led to a temporary a compromiseaccording to which four Ukrainian agricultural products – wheat, corn, rape and sunflower – are allowed to transit through the territory of five Eastern European countries without being stored on their territory or purchased for domestic consumption.
The European Commissioner’s answer
The potential health hazard of food products from Ukraine has also become a controversial political topic in recent months after controls in Slovakia revealed increased amount of prohibited pesticides in Ukrainian wheat. Slovakia subsequently acceded to temporary suspension of the import of Ukrainian cereals.
Many experts have long been skeptical of the quality of Ukrainian food products. “The Ukrainian market is outside the European Union in a completely different regulatory framework. Cultivation control does not meet the standards of advanced economies. Therefore, there is some concern that wheat or other food may come here contaminated,” said Josef Soukup from the Czech University of Life Sciences at the time.
However, unlike our neighbors, the Czech government did not resort to restricting the import of Ukrainian food products, while its representatives repeatedly assured the public that grain from Ukraine is harmless. Spokesman of the Ministry of Agriculture Vojtěch Bílý in a statement entitled “Dangerous lies and hoaxes connected with the import of products from Ukraine” this April he stated, among other things: “Citizens’ health is not at risk. For the Ministry, food safety has long been a top priority. The level of our supervisory bodies is at a very high level. In the event that a shipment that did not meet the standards was discovered during the inspections, it would be disposed of immediately.”
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The article contains labels
EU , European Commission , European Parliament , control , controls , Hungary , Poland , food , consumption , Ukraine , agriculture , grain , agricultural products , Dombrovskis , war in Ukraine , grain from Ukraine , food from Ukraine , food from Ukraine , Ukrainian food , Lins, human consumption, for human consumption
Ukraine (War in Ukraine)
Reports from the battlefield are difficult to verify in real time, regardless of whether they come from any side of the conflict. Both warring parties, for understandable reasons, may release completely or partially false (misleading) information.
You can find brief information regarding this conflict updated by ČTK several times an hour on this page. PL editorial content discussing this conflict can be found on this page.
war in Ukraine
Reports from the battlefield are difficult to verify in real time, regardless of whether they come from any side of the conflict. Both warring parties, for understandable reasons, may release completely or partially false (misleading) information.
You can find brief information regarding this conflict updated by ČTK several times an hour on this page. PL editorial content discussing this conflict can be found on this page.
author: AKS
2023-07-03 12:34:00
#human #consumption #Check #grain #Ukraine #Officially
