The Hungarian government will protect farmers and, if necessary, close the border for some grain products coming from Ukraine from September 16, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture István Nagy said at the Transit political festival in Tihany.

"If the EU does not extend the ban on the import of certain Ukrainian grain products, which expires on September 15, then Hungary will impose a ban on the import of not only four products, but all 24 previous products to protect the domestic market," the Hungarian publication agrarszektor.hu quoted the minister as saying.

According to him, in recent years, Hungary's agriculture has experienced one shock after another. The coronavirus epidemic, the drought, the war raging in the neighborhood and its consequences, the energy crisis, and the fact that cheap Ukrainian agricultural products flooded the European market duty-free – all these are difficulties for producers, he said.

"Although the harvest is better – a near-record amount of corn is expected this year – sales are struggling due to cheap competition," Nagy added.

As reported, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland Robert Telus, after a coalition meeting of five front-line countries on August 25 in Poland, said that the position of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania regarding the need to extend restrictive measures against Ukrainian wheat, rapeseed, corn and sunflower remains unchanged – the ban until the end of 2023.

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. "The restrictions do not mean a ban on the transit of these goods through Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia," said the document, signed by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.