"This is not the first time that Russia used food as a weapon… The situation is similar to one at the beginning of the war," Wojciechowski told reporters.
Henrik Montgomery/PAP/EPA

Poland’s EU agriculture commissioner said on Tuesday that the European Union was ready to export almost all of Ukraine’s farm produce via so-called solidarity lanes and would help to cover the costs.

‘Solidarity lanes’ are rail and road transport connections through EU member states that border Ukraine, such as Poland and Romania.

Janusz Wojciechowski pointed out that the EU was looking at several initiatives from member states to develop a joint plan to cover additional transport costs.

Last week, Russia withdrew from a Black Sea grain deal which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July and was aimed to help prevent a global food crisis by allowing grain blocked by the war in Ukraine to be safely exported.

“Trade is not attractive enough… The beneficiary of this situation will be Russia, because it will be cheaper to buy grain from Russia than from Ukraine, which is transported through Poland to the Baltic ports,” Wojciechowski said, without providing a cost estimate.

He added that when the agreement was in effect, around 60 percent of Ukrainian exports were sent through ‘solidarity lanes’ and 20 percent via the Black Sea.

“This is not the first time that Russia used food as a weapon… The situation is similar to one at the beginning of the war,” Wojciechowski told reporters.

“We are prepared to export almost everything,” he indicated. “This is about four million tonnes of oilseed and grains per month, and we achieved such a volume in November last year.”

According to Reuters, EU member Lithuania has asked the European Commission to develop a route for Ukrainian grain through the ports in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The move, proposed by three Lithuanian ministers in a letter seen by the news agency, would create “a viable and trusted alternative route” for exporting Ukrainian produce, including grain, through the ports of Tallinn, Riga, Ventspils, Liepaja and Klaipeda, said the letter, signed by three Lithuanian ministers.

The five ports have a combined grain export capacity of 25 million tonnes, stated the letter, dated July 21.