The Polish government was blamed for the crisis due to the export of Ukrainian grain
24.11.2023 - 12:30
The Polish government was accused of uncontrolled imports of Ukrainian grain, which led to the “grain crisis”.
The Supreme Audit Chamber of Poland (NIK) has completed an investigation into the “uncontrolled import of grain from Ukraine” from January 2022 to the end of August 2023, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
The Chamber called the cause of the grain crisis “ineffective actions and decisions of the Polish government.”
“Implementation of tasks related to the import and trade of grain and rapeseed from Ukraine was not reliable and efficient,” the NIK final report states.
According to the document, the volume of wheat imports by Poland increased from 3.1 thousand tons in 2021 to 523 thousand tons in 2022. Corn supplies increased from 6.2 thousand tons to 1.85 million tons, rapeseed – from 86 thousand tons to 662 thousand tons.
During the audit period, 541 companies imported to Poland 4.3 million tons of grain and oil crops worth 6.2 billion zlotys.
The Polish agency is sure that former Minister of Agriculture Henryk Kowalczyk misled farmers with the promise of price increases, and also increased the chaos on the market by urging them not to sell grain and rapeseed.
According to NIK, only last December, the former minister informed the European Commission about the “grain crisis”.
