Slovakia bans imports of Ukrainian grain after Poland, Hungary
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Transcript
00:00 After seeing its market flooded with Ukrainian agricultural goods, Warsaw is putting its
00:05 foot down. No more Ukrainian grain is to enter the country.
00:10 The government has decided to ban the import of grain into Poland along with dozens of
00:15 other agricultural products.
00:21 This includes eggs, milk, meat and sugar.
00:24 Although Turkey brokered a deal with Russia allowing ships carrying grain to leave through
00:28 Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports, there is a significant export backlog favouring
00:34 exports across its European land borders.
00:38 But it's forcing down the price of Polish produce.
00:41 Farmers came out in protest on Wednesday demanding urgent measures.
00:45 "This Ukrainian grain and other products are going to end up excluding us from the market,
00:53 even though they were produced according to different standards and at different costs
00:57 and the EU is just letting it happen."
01:01 Hungary also announced a similar ban on Saturday.
01:05 This comes after a letter to the European Commission last month signed by Poland, Hungary,
01:10 Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia asking them to consider tariffs.
01:15 Kiev has responded to Poland's announcement saying they understood the difficulty for
01:20 Polish farmers but the situation is even harder for their own.
01:24 Also saying that Poland's ban went against existing bilateral agreements.
01:29 In making the announcement, Warsaw added that they were ready to enter into talks and that
01:33 they remain unchanged friends and allies of Ukraine.
01:36 Since the beginning of the war, Poland has sent a great deal of military aid and taken
01:41 in more than a million Ukrainian refugees.
01:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]