Debate: Facilitating export of Ukrainian agricultural products: key for Ukrainian economy and global food security
Date: WEDNESDAY, 6 JULY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

Before the war, Ukraine exported up to 5 million tonnes of grain per month, 90% through the Black Sea ports. These flows now need to be redirected through rail, road and inland waterways, and then onward towards new ports. The Commission’s ‘solidarity lanes’ action plan, adopted in May, proposed 20 actions ranging from short—term ones to medium- and long—term ones; these are dealing with increasing connectivity and capacity, also with a view to the reconstruction of Ukraine. As a first step towards the implementation of the action plan, the Commission has put in place a solid framework to manage the process. Member States have designated solidarity lanes contact points to act as a one-stop shop for requests regarding their respective country. The Commission has also directly reached out to the whole transport sector, which has responded massively. A fully fledged matchmaking platform started operating on 23 May. It brings all parties around the table: the national solidarity lanes contact points, the Ukrainian authorities, the EU, and Ukrainian market players. On the business matchmaking platform, 460 companies have already registered, of which over 200 are from Ukraine. These numbers are still growing. Now that the platform has been started, the Commission is working round the clock to facilitate all potential alternative transport routes and to find solutions to best facilitate traffic along them.  We are working with the Member States to make checks and regulatory requirements as efficient as possible. This is particularly crucial for goods in transit. On 29 June, the EU signed temporary road transport agreements with Ukraine and Moldova. These will allow road transport to provide additional capacity.  Through close contacts with the Member States and the stakeholders, the Commission is mapping the capacity of our transport networks and increasing it. For example, we are cooperating with the Danube Commission to maximise the use of Danube route. We also look beyond Constanța, further north to the Polish and Baltic ports, such as Gdańsk and Klaipėda. There is also capacity in many ports that could be reached via Slovakia and Hungary, which still has some capacity for transit from Ukraine. We also need to think of creative solutions, and we are glad to see that some of the Member States are already working on that. For instance, Romania has already set up dedicated convoys of trucks to smoothen the crossing of borders. In parallel, we are working on identifying which storage facilities in the EU are ready to take Ukrainian grain in order to ensure that a buffer is created. Ukrainian authorities have strongly welcomed our work, and are participating actively in the implementation of the action plan. We already see the results that the alternative corridors on the ground are delivering: about 1.3 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds and related products were exported in April and around 2 million tonnes in May. The latest estimates from the Ukrainian Agriculture Ministry show that 2.5 million tonnes of these products were exported in June. This shows that our collective efforts are having a positive impact. We will not be able to fully substitute Ukraine’s Black Sea ports; however, by increasing the agility, flexibility and resilience of the EU transport system we should be able to reach our goal of exporting at least 3 million tonnes of agricultural products per month from Ukraine.