A ban on the sale of harmful Ukrainian wheat by the Slovak agricultural authorities in April sparked a political storm. Slovakia is one of the European Union (EU) countries that wants to restrict imports of Ukrainian agricultural products because it feels it threatens its farmers and that cheap Ukrainian grain distorts the market. Therefore, the Slovak government, one of Ukraine’s biggest military backers, wanted to avoid the impression that pesticides were just an excuse for protectionist measures.
The European Union in 2022 temporarily suspended import tariffs to give Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain producers, better access to world markets after Russia occupied its ports. April 13 S. Vlčan announced that a Slovak grain factory had detected an increase in the level of EU-banned pesticides in a shipment of 1,500 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat. As a result, the ministry banned the processing and sale of Ukrainian wheat until further notice and informed the European and Ukrainian authorities responsible for food safety.
The grain factory criticized the research, so a laboratory in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, was used as a neutral adjudicative body. The intercepted wheat must now be destroyed.
Source: The Delfi
