Poland is thinking of building agro-ports and has called on the European Union to help increase port capacity to allow more Ukrainian grain shipments across the Baltic Sea, while insisting that the ban on sales of the neighbouring region’s harvest remain in place, announced by Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus, Bloomberg reports.
“We need to help Ukraine, and we understand that. We are thinking about building ports exclusively for grain transportation, the so-called agro-ports,” the minister said.
Poland is already in talks with neighbouring Lithuania to move phytosanitary control from its border to Lithuanian ports to speed up the transit of Ukrainian grain. Although terminals in the Baltic Sea are an alternative, “the bulk of the cargo will still go through southern ports,” said Robert Telus.
He confirmed that Poland will not lift its domestic ban on Ukrainian grain sales when it expires in mid-September.
“The ban will be lifted only if Poland starts to run out of grain,” Robert Telus said, adding that there is no such risk.
Source: Agroportal