The solution to the problem of Ukrainian grain should be the extension of the ban on its imports to five European frontline countries until the end of 2023 and transit subsidies from the European Union, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski told Radio Poland.

Wojciechowski proposed that the EU funds, as part of its assistance to Ukraine, the transportation of grain to designated ports, from where the grain would be shipped to Africa and Asia.

"My task is to convince the European Commission and member states that, firstly, the EU should subsidize the transit of grain from Ukraine to ports and third countries, and secondly, it should extend the import ban to these five countries, including Poland at least until the end of the year," he said.

The EU Commissioner said the import of grain from Ukraine to border countries is also a "harmful decision" for Ukrainian farmers.

"This is largely a speculative trade: the fact that prices are low in war-torn Ukraine, and some people are trying to make money on it. (…) Therefore, it is necessary to block border trade, as it is now, and help Ukraine in transit, because global level, because there are countries that really need Ukrainian grain," Wojciechowski said.

The European Commissioner said the transportation of grain from Ukraine through Poland does not pay off. The traditional markets for Ukrainian grain, according to him, were Indonesia, Egypt, and the road to these countries did not run through Poland. If the Black Sea were open, as before the war, there would be no export pressure on Poland. When the Black Sea is blocked, alternative routes must be found, Wojciechowski said.

He also said Ukraine should export about 4 million tonnes of grain per month. The EU, he said, is able to transit such a quantity of grain to the ports, but "funds are needed for this."

On June 5, the European Commission agreed to extend until September 15 restrictions on the export of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. "Restrictions do not mean a ban on the transit of these goods through Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia," according to the document, signed by Head of the EC Ursula von der Leyen.