Ukraine’s agricultural sector: threat to European farmers or strategic partner?
The Polish Stefan Batory Foundation, an independent non-governmental organisation, has recently published an analysis of the potential implications of Ukraine’s membership of the European Union for Polish agriculture and the agri-food processing sector. The study, Divided Harvests, examines the concerns of Polish farmers regarding Ukraine’s European integration, explores whether cooperation and mutual benefits are achievable, and proposes ways to prevent price shocks and other adverse effects resulting from the integration of the Ukrainian market into the EU. This is a complex issue for both Poles and Ukrainians: our neighbours are concerned about maintaining the positions they have already secured, whilst Ukraine fears that its European integration may be jeopardised by these concerns.
We spoke to Sławomir Kalinowski, co-author of the report Divided Harvests, about the Polish perspective on resolving the situation, and to Yana Okhrimenko, senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy, about whether Ukraine can join the EU without triggering a severe crisis.