Poland rules out lifting ban on Ukrainian agricultural imports

Poland does not currently see any possibility of lifting its unilateral ban on imports of certain Ukrainian agricultural products, arguing that doing so would harm the country's agricultural market and local producers.

Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture Adam Nowak said this in Brussels on Monday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We do not see any possibility of reversing these decisions, namely the unilateral ban that we introduced, because it would be detrimental to the Polish agricultural market, Polish farmers and, most importantly, in our view, consumers as well," Nowak said.

He stressed that Ukraine has been granted liberalized access to the European Union market without having to comply with some of the requirements and standards that Polish farmers must meet.

Nowak said that during the recent visit to Poland by EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen, the Polish side had made its position on maintaining the existing market protection mechanisms clear.

"We clearly signaled that we see no possibility of abolishing this mechanism, because such trade liberalization is not beneficial for Poland. It is the only way to stabilize the Polish agricultural market," Nowak said.

Poland, together with several other EU member states, introduced unilateral restrictions on imports of certain Ukrainian agricultural products in 2023, arguing that the measures were necessary to protect domestic farmers from market disruption.

After the updated EU-Ukraine trade agreement entered into force on October 29, 2025, Poland kept in place the embargo, first introduced in April 2023, on imports of wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower seeds and a number of processed agricultural products from Ukraine.

Photo: РАР