Poland's decision to unilaterally stop importing grain from Ukraine has political overtones, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solskyy has said, RBC-Ukraine reports.
The minister confirmed that Warsaw had decided to ban grain imports without warning the Ukrainian side. Before that, the parties had only considered reducing exports.
"Such decisions (to reduce exports - ed.) were worked out, but, as you can see, on Friday night everything changed and resulted in the decision we all heard about (the import ban - ed.)," Solskyy said.
According to him, one of the reasons for this decision was political motivation.
"Obviously, there is a certain point that was the reason for this decision. I think every journalist knows what is going to happen in Poland this year (parliamentary elections - ed.). It is clear that this could not but affect the negotiations that have been and are being held," the minister added.
He also rejected the version of poor quality of Ukrainian grain. According to Solskyy, Ukraine has not received such complaints so far.
At the same time, the official suggested that some batches of grain could be damaged in the face of supply problems, but this is not uncommon in international shipping.
"Some 90% of the examples of comments on the quality of grain were due to one main reason - the cargo was not moving for weeks or months," the minister said.