Croatia will not import Ukrainian grain, says PM – POLITICO

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said his country would not import Ukrainian grain and did not rule out a ban on these imports, like Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

“Croatia’s position and desire is that we are a transit country and not a country receiving huge quantities of Ukrainian grain cheaper than ours, which would mean that our farmers would be in difficulty,” Plenković said, quoted by the Croatian national channel HINA.

kyiv launched legal action against the three European Union countries on Monday at the World Trade Organization for their refusal to lift the ban on Ukrainian agricultural products.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have implemented unilateral bans to protect their domestic agricultural industries from a surge in cheap grain exports from Ukraine, defying the European Commission, which decided last Friday to allow sales of Ukrainian grain throughout the EU.

When asked whether Croatia would implement a similar ban, Plenković did not respond, but reiterated that Croatian ports currently facilitate the passage of Ukrainian grain to third countries, according to reports.

Croatia has offered the use of its sea ports to Ukraine, while the latter’s access to the Black Sea is blocked by Russia, in the context of the ongoing war in the Kremlin.

It is unclear how much grain was exported through Croatian ports, but the route is “already popular”, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said earlier this month.