Kiev will seek to open the transit of food and grain through Poland as a “first step” in talks in Warsaw on Monday afternoon, Ukraine’s agriculture minister said after Poland and Hungary announced a ban on imports of certain goods from Ukraine.

“The first step, in our opinion, should be the opening of the crossing, because this is very important and this is something that must be done unconditionally, and then we will talk about other things,” Minister Mykola Solsky said.

“In numbers, what crossed the Polish border (from Ukraine)… is about 10% of all Ukrainian (food) exports,” he said in comments posted by the Ministry of Agriculture on messaging app Telegram.

Some Ukrainian Black Sea ports were blocked after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, and large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than grain produced in the European Union, have been left behind in Central European countries due to logistical bottlenecks. This hit prices and sales for local farmers.

Ukraine usually exports most of its agricultural products, especially grains, through its Black Sea ports, which were unblocked last July under an agreement between Ukraine, Turkey, Russia and the UN.

Mr. Solsky added that shipments to Hungary accounted for about 6% of Ukraine’s agricultural exports and that the transit of Ukrainian food products through Hungary and Slovakia was not affected.

He also said that additional talks would take place this week in Romania on Wednesday and in Slovakia on Thursday.

Source: Reuters.