EU Able to Transfer Virtually All of Ukraine’s Grain Exports Through Solidarity Lanes

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is able to export virtually all of Ukraine’s agriculture items by way of “solidarity lanes”, the EU’s agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski mentioned on Tuesday, after Russia pulled out of a U.N.-backed Black Sea grain deal this month.

Solidarity lanes are rail and street transport connections by EU member states that border Ukraine.

“It isn’t the primary time Russia makes use of meals as a weapon…the scenario is just like the start of the warfare,” Wojciechowski instructed reporters.

“We’re able to export virtually all the pieces. That is about 4 million tonnes monthly of oilseeds and grains and we achieved this quantity in November final yr,” he added.

Wojciechowski mentioned 60% of Ukraine’s exports had been shipped by way of solidarity lanes and 40% went by way of the Black Sea whereas the U.N. backed grain deal was in operation.

The collapse of the deal is predicted to take a very heavy toll on international locations in Africa that relied on deliveries by sea.

The commissioner added that the EU was a number of initiatives from member states to provide you with a joint plan to cowl the extra transport prices for the export of Ukraine’s agricultural items.

Wojciechowski mentioned there was no rapid estimate for the price of funding the transport.

Increasing grain transit by the EU is delicate for Poland and another EU international locations bordering Ukraine, the place native farmers have come beneath stress from elevated Ukrainian imports.

(Reporting by Julia Payne and Geert De Clercq; Enhancing by Susan Fenton and Christina Fincher)

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