Railwaymen of Ukraine and Romania hope to preserve the transit of grain to the port of Constanta
As Viktor Gurdish, a representative of the GFR company, told during the meeting on Tuesday, April 18, representatives of some political forces have already appealed to the Romanian government several times with a proposal to ban the import of grain from Ukraine. However, currently no restrictions have been officially introduced.
We saw that Poland, Slovakia and Hungary introduced a ban on imports. Poland, including for transit. I hope that we (in Romania, ed.) will not have such measures," said Gurdish.
In his turn, the deputy director of the commercial work department of "Ukrzaliznytsia" Valery Tkachev also expressed the hope that Romania will not resort to the introduction of similar bans.
Let's hope that our governments will come to an agreement, because it is very important for us to pass to Constanta. After all, this is the most powerful nearest port that processes grain. For comparison: the port of Konstanz processes 27 million tons of grain per year, and all Polish ports together - 8.5 million tons," the official explained.
Tkachev also appealed to Romanian carriers with a request: if they have information about any bans, they should immediately inform Ukrzaliznytsia. After all, the company will accept all cargo for transportation until it officially receives a notification from the Romanian side about the introduction of a conventional ban on the acceptance of this or that cargo.
At the same time, it was discussed at the meeting that the border crossings with Romania are underloaded. Thus, if in February the transfer of wagons reached 104 units per day, in March - 108, then in April the volume decreased to 71 wagons.
Ukraine, one of the world's largest grain exporters, was unable to export grain at all through the Black Sea for a long time after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, forcing it to look for alternative export routes. A large amount of Ukrainian grain, cheaper than that grown in the EU, ended up in the countries of Central Europe. This had a negative impact on local farmers.
In Poland, as well as in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, agricultural producers protested against the increase in grain supplies from Ukraine, on which Brussels temporarily canceled tariffs, took place in early April.
This week, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia completely banned the import of Ukrainian agricultural goods into their territory. The European Commission stated that they do not support such individualand actions, as the issue of trade regulation is within the competence of the EU.
Subsequently, Poland, which together with imports banned the transit of Ukrainian grain through its territory, agreed to lift this restriction.