Mr. Rafał Romanowski, Secretary of State, Mr. Krzysztof Jażdżewski, Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, and Mr. Rafał Mładanowicz, the Minister’s Plenipotentiary for the Development of Cooperation with Ukraine, also participated in the meeting.

Transport of Ukrainian agri-food products

The main subject of the talks was the transports of Ukrainian agri-food products. The Ukrainian Minister expressed his gratitude for the actions taken by Poland to improve the throughput capacity on the border and expressed his hopes for the further strengthening of the economic cooperation between our countries.

The head of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture informed that the Polish inspections had taken many efforts to ensure as smooth clearance of shipments across the Polish-Ukrainian border as possible. Nevertheless it is a very complex undertaking, especially in the situation of a significant increase in the number of controls as a result of a higher scale of transports. At the same time, he indicated the need for improvements on the part of Ukraine, too.

The Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer presented information on the flow of commodities across the border. He highlighted the actions taken in the scope of the work done by the Border Veterinary Officers, including, among others, an increase in the number of personnel and longer working hours of inspectors. These actions contribute to implementing the commitments under the Joint Declaration of the Agriculture Ministers of Poland and Ukraine made on 16 May 2022 in Warsaw.

The need for EU assistance

Deputy Minister Henryk Kowalczyk assured of Poland’s readiness to continue its assistance to Ukraine. In this context, he proposed that joint actions together with Ukraine should be taken to obtain technical and financial assistance from the EU. This proposal met with approval on the part of Minister Mykola Solskiy.

There will further talks

Another meeting of the Agriculture Ministers of Poland and Ukraine is planned for the beginning of September.

Trade with Ukraine

For many years Ukraine has been an important partner of Poland in the trade in agri-food products. In the period from January to June 2022, the value of the Polish agricultural exports to the Ukrainian market grew by about 17% (from EUR 377.1 million to EUR 441 million). The exports mainly included: cheeses and curds (EUR 43.7 million, i.e. an increase by about 5%), animal feed products (EUR 32.1 million, i.e. a decrease by 8%), coffee (EUR 29.3 million, i.e. an increase by 42%), as well as fresh, chilled and frozen pork (EUR 21.2 million, i.e. an increase by about 240%).