Hammelburg points out that while Zelensky is not to blame for this, negotiating the grain deal is extremely difficult. This has everything to do with the fact that during the negotiations it was agreed that tariffs on grain exports from Ukraine would be lifted. “For example, for Poland, where a large part of the stock from Ukraine initially ends up,” says Hammelburg. “That was also an EU decision. But Poland now claims that Ukrainian wheat is so deeply undervalued that they are suffering huge losses. Poland therefore demands that the EU restore the tariffs, as they have been fixed in a system of agreements in the rest of the EU.’
Poland’s agriculture minister even resigned in protest over the issue, though Hammelburg said he could have waited and seen if the EU shrinks. “He has formally resigned, and according to him this is really the result of mismanagement by the European Commission.”