Hungary proposed to add new routes to the grain deal

Hungary calls for expanding the grain deal and increasing the number of sea routes used within its framework, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy said following talks in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart Robert Telus.

Nagy suggested that negotiations be held with Turkey, one of the parties to the agreement, on opening new routes for food exports in addition to the existing ones from the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Warsaw supported the initiative. Nagy and Telus agreed to meet with Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky to find common solutions to the problem, writes RBC.

The Hungarian minister also expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of the current “solidarity routes” launched by the European Commission in May last year. These routes should ensure the export of not only agricultural products, but also other goods from Ukraine by land and river routes. According to Nagy, they are not fulfilling their role, since food remains in the countries neighboring Ukraine. “We used to have 40–50 tons of grain left, now we have 2.5 million tons,” he stressed.

In this regard, Budapest proposes to “expand the traditional maritime transport route”, which, according to Nagy, now carries only 12% of Ukrainian products. The initiative will reduce the load on road and rail routes and reduce pressure on EU internal markets, the minister said.

Earlier, Kyiv made calls to increase the number of routes within the framework of the grain deal and include the ports of Nikolaev in it. The G7 countries also called for an expansion of the agreement. The Russian Foreign Ministry ruled out such a possibility. The Russian side claims that the second part of the deal, which guarantees the removal of restrictions on the access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market, is not being implemented.