Kyiv, Ukraine, May 9, 2025 (AFP)
Ukrainian agriculture products are not a threat to European farmers, a minister told AFP on Friday, as Ukraine seeks the renewal of a key market access accord.
"Help us to strengthen the European Union. We are not a threat, we are an opportunity," Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Vitaliy Koval said.
The European Union gave an exemption to customs limits for some Ukrainian farm products after Russia's 2022 invasion to help overcome the economic fallout.
Ukraine is hoping the agreement, which ends on June 5, is completely renewed, while the European Commission reportedly wants to give reduced quotas but over a longer term.
With talks deadlocked, the Commission is considering a temporary deal. The EU has faced the anger of farm unions who accuse their Ukrainian rivals of unfairly undercutting their prices.
"The biggest assistance that the European Union could give us is the opening of the market for products," Koval said.
He noted that 75 percent of the production input for Ukraine's products came from elsewhere in Europe.
According to Koval, Ukraine's farm exports are worth 13 billion euros ($14.6 billion) a year. "It is less than five percent of what the EU buys," he said. "But there is a lot of noise and emotion around this figure."
Ukraine does not want to just ask for aid, it wants to be "complementary" to the EU, he added.
Ukraine needs European investment in its food and farm transformation sector and assistance to get Ukrainian products access to markets in Africa and elsewhere, the minister said.
"Twenty-five thousand people die each day from hunger because of poor logistics," Koval said. "We are ready to fight alongside Europe" to avoid this, he added. "We can do it together."

Sumber : AFP