BRUSSELS: Farmers in eastern EU states are fuming over an influx of Ukrainian grain, which they claim has saturated their market and led to a massive drop in prices.
Due to Russia’s invasion and disruption of Ukraine’s traditional Black Sea shipping lanes, the EU permitted Ukraine to export agricultural products through the bloc.
However, protests have led authorities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia to announce a temporary ban on Ukrainian grains in the past week. Despite this, goods can still transit through these countries as EU discussions are ongoing to resolve the issue.
Bulgarian farmer Angel Vukodinov, who has been a farmer for over 30 years in the central Bulgarian town of Saedinenie, says the compensation offered by the EU for their losses is a joke.
He blames the Ukrainian grain influx for the piles of unsold sunflower seeds in central Bulgaria, a situation shared by other farmers in the eastern EU nations. In response, the European Union has offered financial aid for farmers impacted by the influx.
Ukrainian sunflower seeds import to the EU’s poorest member
Last year, 940,000 tons of Ukrainian sunflower seeds were imported into the EU’s poorest member, Bulgaria, or half of Ukraine’s total exports of sunflower seeds to the bloc. Neighboring Romania came second with nearly 360,000 tons.
The market of sunflower seeds in Bulgaria has become oversaturated, with prices plummeting to around 360 euros per ton, which does not cover production expenses, according to Marin Iliev, management board member of the Plovdiv Union of Grain Producers.
In February, faced with protests and roadblocks by farmers, the European Commission offered a 56-million-euro package for farmers, with an additional 100 million euros of support added this week.
Emergency measures have also been proposed to ensure grain could enter Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria only for export. However, farmers are calling for a permanent solution to the market saturation and plummeting prices.
The uncertainty continues as the EU and eastern EU farmers engage in talks to find a solution. While farmers are hopeful for solidarity corridors to remain solidarity corridors in practice, Nikolay Valkanov, director of the Sofia-based think-tank InteliAgro, accused an “aristocracy of major farmers” of holding the country “hostage” by not selling produced grain last year while hoping for prices to go up.
He stated that the average price of Ukrainian sunflower seeds sold in Bulgaria last year was $690 per ton, which was not a dumping price, and questioned why the Bulgarian farmers did not sell their produce back then.
![NEW YORK: Pakistan's former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leading Pakistan’s high-level parliamentary delegation, on Tuesday warned that India's aggressive actions pose a serious threat to peace in South Asia and urged the international community to take note of India's aggressive conduct. Bilawal was addressing a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York on recent regional developments after the military conflict between India and Pakistan. The Pakistani delegation is in New York to present Pakistan’s stance on the military escalation with India and to challenge New Delhi’s narrative at the global level. The visit is part of Pakistan’s sustained diplomatic outreach to brief key UN stakeholders on the alarming regional situation. The Pakistani delegation is also scheduled to arrive in Washington today, where it plans to engage with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, other senior officials, lawmakers, and think tanks till June 6. The team will also visit London and Brussels. Speaking at the press conference, Bilawal said that he wanted to use the opportunity to share Pakistan’s perspective on the recent military conflict with India in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and the way forward. Bilawal said that the “illegal strikes” launched by India as part of its ‘Operation Sindoor’ were “in violation of the UN Charter, international law”. He said the attacks had targeted civilian infrastructure, places of worship, energy infrastructure and innocent women and children. He said India had used the April 22 terrorist attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (IIOJK) Pahalgam as a pretext to launch the attack inside Pakistan. Following the Pahalgam incident, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered publicly to India that Pakistan was ready to be part of any impartial international investigation into this attack. “We did so because we were confident, our hands were clean and we had nothing to do with this terrorist attack. “We expressed our sympathy with the victims of terrorism and Pakistan has consistently and unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” he said, adding that PM Sharif had immediately expressed Pakistan’s willingness to India and the global community to be part of any impartial international investigation. “Indian government refused Pakistan's offer and chose instead to conduct their illegal strikes. Pakistan only then acted in self-defence, we never initiated any violence against India,” Bilawal said. Bilawal emphasised that Pakistan never initiated hostilities against India but responded to Indian aggression by downing six Indian fighter jets. "The Pakistani military had responded with precision the night of the first Indian attack and only targeted and downed six planes because we believed those were the ones to release their load on Pakistan”. He stated that US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio played a vital role in achieving a ceasefire during heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours. “We’ve seen during the course of this conflict how quickly the escalation ladder between our two countries rose and the concern is that the next time there is such an incident, there may not be time for the international community to intervene before things get a lot worse. That is why it is absolutely important for Pakistan and the international community to continue to pursue dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable path to peace.” He said Pakistan’s position was to hold a “comprehensive dialogue” with India that would include the issue of terrorism as well. The head of the Pakistani delegation said that no civilized nation can support the use of water as a weapon and urged the international community to play its part, questioning, "What would be the global reaction if someone’s lifeline was cut off?" He stressed that Pakistan has paid a heavy price in the fight against terrorism and has suffered the most. “The single largest number of terrorist attacks that take place in any one country is Pakistan. The single largest number of victims of terrorism is Pakistan. I myself have suffered at the hands of terrorists. My mother [Benazir Bhutto] was assassinated by the terrorists.” Bilawal also criticised India for targeting water reservoirs and civilian areas, including mosques, during its attacks. Calling negotiations the only path to peace, Bilawal reiterated that the unresolved Kashmir dispute remains the root cause of regional instability. He urged the global community to take notice of India’s aggressive conduct.](https://wenewsenglish.com/storage/2025/06/Bilawal-Bhutto-Zardari-300x180.jpg)
