According to Eurostat, almost 11,000 tons of wheat from Ukraine were imported into Slovakia in September. While domestic companies did not import Ukrainian wheat for the past years, the situation changed in May of this year. Its imports began to rise, and since then 20,000 tons of wheat originating from Ukraine have cleared customs in Slovakia.

Priority should be given to transit through Slovakia to other countries, but processing in local mills is not excluded. The Ministry of Agriculture did not specify how much of the imported wheat ends up on the domestic market, but it has intensified grain quality control.

“The Ministry, through subordinate organizations for ensuring the safety and quality of grain products, implements intensified inspections and tests of the quality of grain in warehouses, as well as flour or feed mixtures for animals on the domestic market,” said the ministry on the import margin.

“Individual cases where wheat was purchased from Ukraine for the mills were re-evaluated within the control procedures of the official control bodies,” added the agricultural department.

They recalled that Slovak millers and bakers have so far expressed that they value the safety and quality of their products and do not consider processing Ukrainian wheat.

Changed wheat import routes to the European market

The Slovak market is not dependent on the import of wheat, we are self-sufficient in its production for a long time. This almost doubles the consumption, including the growing use of wheat for energy purposes. continue is not stored. This year’s imports of Ukrainian wheat are related to the opening of new trade routes from Ukraine after the blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

More on the topic: War in Ukraine

“Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, as EU member states that are neighboring Ukraine, have made huge efforts and investments to facilitate the functioning of these trade routes,” stated in a joint November statement by representatives of the European Commission, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and financing banks.

As they added, solidarity corridors are today the only option for the export of all non-agricultural Ukrainian goods to the rest of the world, as well as for the delivery of necessary goods to Ukrainians, such as fuel and humanitarian aid.

Concerns about food safety, a crippling pandemic

Complications with the supply of cereals around the world began already during the coronavirus pandemic. Supplier-customer relations were disrupted, agriculture lacked the necessary inputs. A large country, in the European Union, for example, France, as the largest producer of wheat, limited its second export, especially in the year of the pandemic.