Ukrainian farmers and carriers lost $1 million due to Polish protests

Due to the protests on the Polish-Ukrainian border, farmers and grain transporters suffered losses of, on average, 1 million dollars.

Ukrainian farmers and grain carriers have already lost from $954,000 to $1,485 million during the 23 days of downtime at the Polish borders, according to KSE Agrocentr calculations.

According to the State Border Guard Service, the number of trucks waiting in line at the border with Poland and transporting agricultural products (Code 01-24) is 1,044 as of March 4. At the same time, the average length of stay at three checkpoints (Krakowec, Rava-Ruska, and Jagodzin) reaches 23 days.

According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture, in February, in the structure of road transport, grain accounted for 24%, of which corn – 13%, wheat – 10%, barley – 1%. The weighted average domestic price of these three grain crops, according to calculations, is $108 per ton without VAT. The average idle cost of one truck is $110, according to logistics operators.

The calculation is approximate and does not include other indirect losses (reorientation of cargo through other countries). The data is current as of March 4, 2024.

Previously, USM reported that Poland will officially call on the European Commission to completely block the import of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus.

We will remind, despite the embargo on some types of agricultural products from Ukraine, Poland continues to import the same items from Russia and Belarus. Ukrainian journalists learned about it.

Probably, following this and after that, the head of the Polish government, Donald Tusk, said that Poland will study Latvia’s experience in imposing an embargo on the import of agricultural products from the Russian Federation and, perhaps, will soon take similar steps.

Agrarians from Lithuania sided with Ukraine the day before. According to farmers, a much bigger problem for the agricultural market is Russian grain entering the country.