Since Friday 1er March, Polish farmers block the main access point to neighboring Lithuania. They accuse the three Baltic states in the north of serving as a hub for Ukrainian grain. Information however denied by Lithuanian traders, according to which only 50,000 tonnes of said cereals were imported by Lithuania in 2023, much less than before the war between kyiv and Moscow.
According to Baltic farmers, the problem lies elsewhere. For months, they have been calling for a ban on imports of Russian cereals and agricultural products, which have so far escaped European sanctions and which they accuse of driving prices down.
For the Baltic States, the subject is all the more important as they recorded an increase in arrivals of Russian cereals and food products in 2023 on their territory. For example, Latvia imported 423,732 tonnes of Russian cereals, an increase of 60% compared to 2022. Furthermore, more than 2 million tonnes of Russian cereals (including 1.68 million tonnes of wheat and a mixture of wheat and rye) passed through the small country of 1.8 million inhabitants, a quarter of whom were destined for another European country.
“Destabilization”
Under pressure from farmers, who demonstrated in sixteen Latvian towns at the beginning of February, Riga decided, Thursday, February 22, to ban the import of foodstuffs, fishery products and fodder from Russia and Belarus until July 2025, with the exception of goods intended for transit.
“Anything imported from Russia can be imported from Ukraine. This is how we will help Ukraine, not Russia, support its war machine.”commented the Latvian Minister of Agriculture, Armands Krauze, before a European Council in Brussels, Monday February 26, where he once again pleaded in favor of a European decision.
Without delay, on Tuesday March 5, the Latvian government extended the ban to fruits and vegetables, as well as nuts and animal feed products, arguing that ” Farmers [avaient] publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the continuation of Latvia’s relations with the aggressor state [la Russie] and their desire to terminate any relationship with it, including the use of its products in human and animal consumption”.
In Lithuania, farmers are pushing for a similar measure. They received the support of several deputies, who have just made a proposal to this effect in Parliament, as well as from the president, Gitanas Nauseda, who considers that a ban on Russian imports is “entirely logical given the role that this country plays in destabilizing the geopolitical situation in Europe”.
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