Hungary offered to open new sea routes for exports from Ukraine

Hungary initiated the expansion of sea routes for the export of Ukrainian products in order to reduce the flow of land shipments.

Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy proposed to open new sea routes for the export of Ukrainian grain, in addition to the three ports of the “grain corridor”, according to the website of the Hungarian government.

During the press conference, Nagy asked his Polish colleague Robert Telusha for a mandate to negotiate with the Turkish side regarding new sea transport routes for Ukraine.

The Hungarian minister noted that the current “Paths of Solidarity” do not fulfill their role, as Ukrainian products remain in neighboring countries. That’s why he proposed to strengthen sea exports, which currently send only 12% of products from Ukraine.

Expanding sea routes would reduce pressure on overland shipments as well as on EU internal markets.

Nagy supported the initiative to ban the import of some Ukrainian products until September 15 and noted that even this period is too short.

We will remind you that in May, the European Commission banned the import of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower to Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. Poland expects that the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products will be extended after September 15, and that new items will be added to the list of banned Ukrainian products.

In particular, Warsaw opposes imports, because technical grain was imported into Poland, which was later sold as consumer goods. Polish farmers also suffered from the large flow of Ukrainian grain.

USM previously reported that Romania is considering giving local farmers priority access to the port of Constanta during the harvest season, which could limit Ukrainian grain exports. The harvest season will begin around July, when Russia is expected to be able to withdraw from the Grains Agreement, and will continue until October.