Agriculture Minister István Nagy said Hungary is proposing progressive subsidies for the transport of Ukrainian grain in the European Union to ensure that it reaches its traditional markets rather than getting stranded in central and eastern Europe and distorting the markets there.
Minister Nagy briefed Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine’s Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food, on his talks with European Commission representatives on Hungary’s decision to temporarily ban Ukrainian agricultural products. The EU is preparing to place Ukrainian wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and rapeseeds under the bloc’s trade liberalisation clause, he said. Minister Nagy stressed that the Hungarian ban was temporary, introduced to protect Hungarian farmers and consumers. Ukraine’s traditional cheap trading routes across the Black Sea are being blocked due to Russian aggression, he noted. Nagy also said that the EU’s solidarity lanes had not achieved their goal as Ukrainian products were not reaching the original markets and were upsetting the markets of neighbouring EU countries. The progressive transport subsidies could help solve that problem, he said. Hungary continues to allow the transit of Ukrainian products, he said. Shipments get sealed at the border and monitored throughout the country, he said. Their smooth and swift travel through the country is a priority, he said. Tax and customs authority NAV has tightened inspections of grain consignments from Ukraine since April 14. A recent government decree regulating the imports of several agricultural goods from Ukraine allows solely the transport of those products through Hungary’s territory, NAV said in a statement. Accordingly, NAV is conducting inspections of shipments at Hungary’s EU external Schengen borders as well as throughout the country’s territory, the authority said. The aim is to prevent entry or the sale of those products on the domestic market. Shipments originating from Ukraine but entering Hungary from Slovakia and Romania are subject to electronic inspections aided by excise officers in the country’s internal territory away from the borders. The aim is to prevent illegal deposits of those consignments in domestic warehouses. NAV is conducting the inspections in cooperation with the food safety authority NEBIH.