The EU feeds Putin's war chest with wheat imports. Since the start of the Ukraine war, the amount has increased significantly, current data shows. The Union demands consequences.
Russian farmers have produced a record grain harvest in recent months. If things go like last year, then a surprisingly sizeable portion of it will go to the EU: imports of Russian wheat into the member states will have almost doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year.
This emerges from a response from the federal government to a request from the CDU/CSU, which
is available exclusively to
IPPEN.MEDIA
. Accordingly, the EU imported around 415,000 tons of Russian wheat in 2022 - the year in which Russia invaded Ukraine. A year later it was 818,000 tons. In the past ten years, this value has only been higher once: in 2018 at 1.3 million tons. Imported Russian grain had a total value of 275 million euros in 2023.
Current data: Import of Russian wheat into the EU
2021 |
482,830 tons (equivalent to 150 million euros) |
2022 |
415,250 tons (equivalent to 158 million euros) |
2023 |
818,220 tons (equivalent to 275 million euros) |
One thing is clear: “Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s grain exports have continued to increase,” as researchers from the Leibnitz Institute for Agricultural Development recently reported. Nothing is likely to change any time soon. “The forecasts suggest that Russia will remain a dominant wheat supplier on the global market,” the scientists said.
The federal government made a similar statement in its response: “Since the 2014/2015 marketing year, Russian wheat exports have increased overall from 22.22 million tons to 51 million tons (+130 percent), according to data from the International Grain Council (IGC).” Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin has signed grain agreements with several countries. The largest amount of wheat goes to Turkey or Egypt.
Germany hardly imports any Russian grain. As the
Topagrar
portal
reports, citing EU figures, the Federal Republic has only imported four tons of corn and five tons of wheat from Russia since the start of the war.
No grain sanctions for Russia: “We cannot allow this to continue”
Other countries are less cautious. This is mainly because the EU had not imposed any sanctions on Russian wheat. The CDU/CSU wants to change that. “Russian agricultural exports to the EU pour hundreds of millions of euros directly into Putin’s war chest. We cannot allow this to continue,” says the Union’s agricultural policy spokesman, Albert Stegemann,
IPPEN.MEDIA.
“The federal government should advocate for a comprehensive European import ban on Russian agricultural goods.”
Because: “We are neither dependent on these products, nor would this have a negative impact on world nutrition,” says Stegemann. “An import ban would also have positive effects for European farmers who suffer from poor world market prices.”
Russia is considered one of the largest grain exporters - alongside Ukraine. One goal of the war is also to weaken the neighboring country's economy. Russia has “transported away or rendered unusable” 2.8 million tons of grain from Ukraine, as the federal government writes. Russia also temporarily blocked Ukrainian ports.
The result, according to the Leibnitz Institute: “Ukrainian agricultural exports collapsed and only small quantities of grain were exported via the newly established EU-Ukraine solidarity routes.” Russia is and remains the “globally dominant wheat exporter”.
Ukraine is struggling for exports: tariff freedom in the EU could expire
In Ukraine, corn production dominates, accounting for around two thirds of exports to Europe. Trade with the EU was recently made easier, but that could soon change. At the beginning of April, Brussels agreed on new customs rules to the detriment of Ukraine. Products such as eggs, sugar or corn would then only be allowed to be imported into the EU duty-free up to a certain amount. When this amount is reached, tariffs will be due again.
The background is that the EU exempted Ukrainian goods from customs duties shortly after the start of the war. This was intended to strengthen the country's economy. The current customs relief for Ukraine will expire in the summer. If no new regulation is approved by then, the measure will expire without replacement. Farmers, from Germany but especially from eastern EU countries, are calling for an end to tariff freedom. They face disproportionate competition from cheap agricultural imports from Ukraine
(as)