The head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Andrii Dykun, has appealed to the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola, and European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski to consider and support changes to veterinary controls within the framework of the European Union’s "Solidarity Lanes" initiative.
The All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.
According to Dykun, the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council proposes abolishing veterinary controls on the Ukrainian-Polish border if the following three criteria are met during the transportation of animal feed or feed grain: the cargo is being transported on transit through Poland to customs warehouses in other countries in the European Union; the European Union country to which the cargo is being transported agrees to perform veterinary control on its territory when transit ends, which means the import of the relevant products into the European Union; the European Union country to which the cargo is being transported agrees to perform veterinary control on its territory if the cargo is redirected to other countries.
"Veterinary control should not be performed if feed grain or other feed of plant origin is being exported outside the EU on transit through an EU country that agrees to participate in this initiative," Dykun said.
The export of animal feed and feed grain from Ukraine began slowing down on the Ukrainian-Polish border at the beginning of 2023.
The average volume of grain cargo passing through railway checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border per day decreased by 28% in the first half of March this year, compared with the corresponding period of February. The average volume of grain cargoes passing through automobile checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border decreased to 10,444 tons per day in the first third of March 2023, which is 36% less than last year's peak volume (in the final third of September).
Drivers going through the largest border crossing (the Yahodyn - Dorohusk border crossing) are forced to wait over 10 days for veterinary control (previously no more than 5 days), and the veterinary inspection of a single train takes 4–5 days (previously no more than 1 day).
Veterinary control has slowed because the Polish authorities abolished the performance of veterinary controls inside the country at the beginning of this year and introduced tighter veterinary controls in March this year. As a result, almost every truck and wagon carrying animal feed and feed grain is inspected at a Polish border crossing.
"The All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council understands any decision made by the Polish side because it is one of the countries whose support is extremely important to Ukraine. However, we are forced to appeal to EU countries because the export of agricultural products has become one of the most important sectors of the Ukrainian economy in these difficult circumstances," he said in the statement.
