A protest by Polish farmers at the Rava-Ruska border crossing with Ukraine has been suspended, lifting a blockade that has been maintained for months, Reuters reported.
Following months of diplomacy by Kyiv, the farmers ended their last blockade on Monday 29 April, Ukrainian border official Andriy Demchenko was quoted as saying in a report on the same date.
“Fortunately, we have all directions on the border with Poland unblocked,” Demchenko, said, adding that trucks were crossing in both directions. Poland’s border guard spokesman confirmed that comment.
Ukrainian farm minister Mykola Solsky had praised what he said was “constructive work” by Poland, the report said.
The blockade at the border was initially started by Polish truckers at the end of last year over anger at what they claimed was Ukraine’s use of a wartime easing of border restrictions to win market share, Reuters wrote.
Concerns about cheap Ukrainian food imports then led Polish farmers to join the truckers’ protest.
Following the suspension of the blockade, Ukraine's daily average food exports by truck were up almost 20% on Monday compared with mid-April, Solsky’s first deputy Taras Vysotsky said.
Trucks carrying grain will still face checks on the Polish side, according to Kyiv officials.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych was quoted as saying the blockades were “a thing of the past”.
However, Roman Kondrow, the leader of a local farmers’ organisation in the region bordering Ukraine, was quoted by Polish news agency PAP as saying protests could resume if needed.
Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesperson for the Solidarity farmers’ union, told Reuters the farmers were continuing talks with the government and were planning a protest in Warsaw on 10 May.
A major European grain producer, Ukraine has said its agricultural exports via eastern Europe had not damaged EU markets, while its trade had been impacted by the protests, the report said.
In April, in a bid to address the protesters’ demands, Poland decided to pay 2.1bn zlotys (US$520M) in subsidies to farmers to compensate them for low grain prices, Reuters wrote.
