Hungary says Central Europe wants ban on grain imports from Ukraine to be extended

Hungary and four other Central European countries would like to keep the ban on grain imports from Ukraine until the end of the year and expect the European Commission to approve such a decision, Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said, Report informs via TASS.

The minister noted that the temporary ban was introduced for the period from May 2 to June 5.

In this regard, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia appealed to the EU leadership with a request to extend the embargo on supplies of wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseed from Ukraine at least until the end of December. "Currently, we are waiting for the proposal of the European Commission on maintaining the current EU regime after June 5," Istvan Nagy said in a statement.

Nagy noted that in the next couple of weeks, the situation in the agricultural markets of the Central European countries will not be normalized, since most of their grain warehouses are still occupied by last year's Ukrainian crops. These products, which did not reach consumers in Asia and Africa, were stuck in Europe, and their sale at dumping prices caused serious damage to local farmers.