EU Angry That Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia are Protecting Farmers From Low Prices

Tractors are seen during farmers protest near the rail line on the border with Ukraine in
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Oliver JJ Lane

The return of Ukrainian grain and other food imports into Europe after a hiatus is depressing commodity prices in Europe, which can be disastrous for farmers. Several nations with strong agricultural bases have banned imports to protect their own farmers, but the European Union is outraged.

Poland, Hungary, and now Slovakia have moved to enforce temporary import bans on Ukrainian products to protect their own farmers, after supplies started banking up, depressing prices and threatening the livelihoods of agriculture workers in the European nations. In normal times Ukrainian food exports were generally by sea and to Africa and the Middle East, but the Black Sea is now blocked and what can get out goes by land, causing a glut in Europe and a consequent price crash.

The emergence of these products on the European Market has been extremely harmful to European farms — the price of wheat in Poland has halved this year while production costs have soared — and farmers petitioned their governments to take action. There were protests in Romania earlier this month over the price of grain.

Yet outrage for the protectionist policy has been swift, with accusations that the nations are showing insufficient solidarity with war-torn Ukraine.

The European Union, through the Commission, have reacted extremely strongly to the ban on political grounds. The European Union, which is in the process of transforming itself into a federal superstate, claims that trade policy is a Brussels — or in other words federal — competency and that individual member states have no right to decide their own rules. A spokesperson said of the decision by Poland and Hungary to ban various agricultural products that: “In such challenging times, it is crucial to coordinate and align all decisions within the EU”.

Since those comments, Slovakia has also joined the group of nations working to protect their own agri-sectors. It is reported Bulgaria is also considering launching its own bans. Hungary, for their part, say they have acted unilaterally because the European Union failed to: Poland has made similar comments, saying it is pointless to spend weeks negotiating with the European Commission when action was needed immediately.

But Europe’s grasping for power and dominion over its member-states isn’t the full extent of criticism over the policy, with attacks on those countries also coming from emotional positions. A particularly indignant analysis piece in Germany’s establishment broadsheet newspaper Die Welt states the move to protect farmers at home shows Poland calls into question their “loyalty to Ukraine”.

The article cites comments by the leader of Poland’s governing party that underline the government’s Poland-first stance: “We will support Ukraine. But the goal of good government is first and foremost to support its own citizens”. Pointing out that Poland is Ukraine’s strongest supporter in Europe, Die Welt notes how quickly unqualified support for the Russia-invaded territory can evaporate once the domestic price becomes too high.

The accusation of insufficient loyalty does not stick for Slovakia either, the country has after all handed over its entire inventory of Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine this week to help them, fight against Russia.

The Ukrainian food producer’s union (UAC) dismissed European concerns when farmers protested over low grain prices earlier this month, saying the problems were exaggerated and the protests were actually politically motivated. Deputy chair of the UAC Denys Marchuk said “The political nature of the European farmers’ strikes is obvious” and they were caused by “certain forces” who wanted to blame Ukraine for problems, Reuters reported.

The concerns that there is now too much Ukrainian product in Europe, including great amounts of grain stuck in Eastern Europe depressing prices, are a considerable change from the concerns early in the war that the Russian invasion would see a grain shortage. That may yet transpire: while there is a grain glut in Eastern Europe, an area that doesn’t really need to import grain, much Ukrainian grain went to Africa before the war, which can have a more delicate food situation.

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