Polish farmers resume Ukraine border blockade
RYKI, Poland: Farmers in Poland resumed a blockade of around 100 roads to the Ukrainian border on Tuesday morning to protest against “uncontrolled” imports and demand a change to EU agricultural policy.
Polish farmers with their tractors and vehicles arrive to block the highway linking Warsaw and Lublin outside the town of Ryki, Lublin region, during a protest of farmers across the country against EU climate measures on Feb 20, 2024. – AFP.
For weeks Polish farmers have been blocking Ukrainian goods lorries from entering their country in anger at what they say is unfair competition from cheaper imports from Poland’s war-torn neighbor and ally. Across Europe, angry farmers have been protesting over rising costs, high fuel prices, bureaucracy and the environmental requirements in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its forthcoming “Green Deal”.
Dozens of tractors travelled to Ryki, a town 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the capital Warsaw, to block a major highway that leads to the Ukrainian border. Farmers hung red and white Polish flags on their tractors along with placards that said: “Stop the uncontrolled influx of Ukrainian goods” and “Farming is dying little by little”. Roads into EU member Poland have been an export lifeline for Ukraine, particularly its agriculture sector, after the 2022 Russian invasion complicated major trading routes through the Black Sea.
But the increase in road imports has angered Polish logistics companies and farmers, who say their Ukrainian rivals are undercutting them.
“I’m here to get rid of the restrictions introduced by the European Union regarding fallow land, the Green Deal and above all to stop Ukrainian food flowing in,” Tomasz Golak, who runs an animal and cereal farm in a nearby village, told AFP. “This year wheat is selling for half the price it did last year,” he added. The 27-nation EU last month eased restrictions that obliged farmers to keep part of their land fallow and this month extended that exemption under pressure from protests. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the blockade demonstrated an “erosion of solidarity” and could not be “considered normal or ordinary.” – AFP.
