The meeting was chaired on the Polish side by the Minister of Economic Development and Technology, Waldemar Buda, and on the Ukrainian side by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk,

Topics discussed

Deputy Minister Bartosik stressed that since the outbreak of the armed conflict, the intensity of contacts with representatives of the Ukrainian side at ministerial level has been very high. He pointed to the increasing value of trade with agri-food products and expressed his hope for further development of mutual cooperation in this sector. He also stressed the readiness of Polish economic agents to participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine after the end of the war with Russia.

The Ukrainian representatives considered it most important to improve the flow of agri-food products across the Polish-Ukrainian border. At the same time, they confirmed that the capacity of border crossings has increased in recent months. They highlighted the efficiency of Polish services, including the phytosanitary and veterinary ones.

Talks by representatives of the veterinary services

The Commission’s meeting was also an opportunity for discussions to take place between the Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, Krzysztof Jażdżewski, and the Deputy of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Olga Shevchenko. The issues of access of Polish agri-food products of animal origin to the Ukrainian market were discussed, including the recognition by the Ukrainian side of Poland’s regionalisation with regard to ASF.

Value of trade and assortment

Ukraine is the most important recipient of Polish agri-food products among the non-EU countries. In 2021, Polish exports to Ukraine reached EUR 811.3 mln and imports from Ukraine reached EUR 930.4 mln. In the seven months of 2022, there was an increase in mutual trade, with exports amounting to around EUR 536 mln, while imports from Ukraine amounted to EUR 1.1 bln.

In 2022, we mainly exported to the Ukrainian market cheese and cottage cheese, animal feed products and coffee, while importing mainly sunflower oil, maize grain, soya oil and oilcakes.