Five EU food producers organisations have urged the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner to adopt a cap mechanism for sensitive commodities for which the bloc liberalised import from Kyiv.

Measures are needed, the associations said, to shield EU farmers from market disruptions caused by trade benefits conceded to Ukraine.

In a meeting with Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski on Wednesday (10 December), representatives of farmers, the sugar and poultry industry and maize and eggs producers – the most affected by market disruptions – reiterated their support to Ukraine, but warned that the efforts to help Kyiv are “currently inequitably shared, with the agricultural sector bearing a disproportionate and unsustainable burden”, according to a joint statement.

Support for Ukraine “will be at stake” if current measures are left untouched and food producers “do not want to be the reason for discord”, added the text.

The EU temporarily lifted restrictions on imports from Ukraine in June 2022 following Russia’s invasion of the country.

But the influx of Ukrainian foods and goods into the EU market pushed prices down in frontline countries – namely Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.

After a temporary suspension, the Commission resumed the trade benefits establishing a system of checks and controls on the Ukrainian side to help prevent market distortion. Since then, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have established unilateral national bans on Ukrainian imports, while the EU executive is discussing the prolongation of trade liberalisation.

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Import thresholds

Food producers’ associations asked the Commission to introduce a cap mechanism for “sensitive” agricultural products subject to trade liberalisation.

Such import thresholds should be based on the yearly average of Ukrainian imports to the EU for the combined years 2021-2022, according to the organisations. Then, any products imported above this figure should be exported outside the EU, allowing only transit inside the EU market.

The organisations also called for a system to guarantee that Ukrainian products reach their destination before entering the bloc and proposed to use a deposit system. They urged the EU executive to tackle logistical bottlenecks and make sure products flow easily “to where they are needed”.

On many occasions, such as the last meeting of EU agriculture ministers, on 11 December, Wojciechowski called on the EU to adopt “some appropriate safeguard instruments to react if import[s are] too high and disruptive for [the EU] market”.

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