The European Commission proposes to increase the duty on the import of grain and meal from the Russian Federation and Belarus

On Friday, the European Commission presented a proposal to raise to 95 €/t the duty on the import of grain into the EU from the Russian Federation and Belarus, in particular wheat and sunflower meal, which will help avoid destabilization of the European market and prevent the Russian Federation from using export revenues to finance the war in Ukraine.

"In 2023, the Russian Federation exported 1.3 billion euros worth of such products to the EU, so increased tariffs will deprive the Russian economy of an important source of income," the EC said.

The head of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the increase in customs duties on imports from the Russian Federation will reduce the risks for European farmers.

Now the proposal must be considered by the Council of the EU, after which an appropriate decision will be made.

Rusagrotrans stated that it will be very difficult for Europe to replace supplies from the Russian Federation of such goods as sunflower meal, pulp or flax. In 2023, it re-exported almost 4.9 million tons of agricultural products to the EU, of which 1.54 million tons were grain crops, primarily soft and durum wheat, rye, corn, and barley, which were delivered to Italy, Spain, Greece, and Belgium and Germany.

The share of supplies to the EU in the total export of Russian grain in 2023 was only 2%, with sunflower and rapeseed meal mostly supplied to Germany, Denmark and France, legumes (primarily peas) to Spain, Italy and Denmark, beet pulp to the Nordic countries and Western Europe, oil flax - to Belgium.

Grain exports from the Russian Federation to the EU increased from 970,000 tons in 2022 to 1.54 million tons in 2023, which was the highest figure since 2018, when it reached 2 million tons. Estonia increased its import of Russian grain the most (by 1,600%) , Italy - (386%), the Netherlands (138%) and Poland (107.5%). In absolute terms, Italy (473.7 thousand tons), Latvia (420 thousand tons), Greece (264.6 thousand tons), Spain (256.6 thousand tons), Poland (12.7 thousand tons) became the leaders in the import of Russian grain compared to 6.1 thousand tons last year).

We will remind that in 2023, Ukraine reduced grain exports to Poland to 1 million tons, which is significantly less than the 2.4 million tons delivered in 2022, when sea exports were blocked.