Slovakia extended its ban on imports of Ukrainian grain in a move to protect domestic farmers. Yet as the country exports around 50 percent of the grain it produces, the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain to the third market seriously affects Slovakia's exports.
As a result, grain prices in Slovakia dropped to historical lows, and local farmers say they are on the verge of collapse.
CGTN visited one big farm close to the town of Trnava, in the area frequently labeled as the country's breadbasket. There the crops are already harvested and the grain is in the barns. Now the tractors plow the soil for the next season, but things are not so rosy for this farm.
Owners have a dilemma over whether they should sow crops for next season as local grain prices fall to as low as 200 dollars per ton. They blame the low prices on the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain.
A Ukrainian farmer in the Donetsk region shows the grain in his barn in June 2022. /File/CFP
The Slovakian government tried to protect the domestic production by banning those imports, particularly during one of the record-breaking crop-yielding years. Yet for the farmers that is not enough, as Slovakia is a transit country for Ukrainian grain to the third market.
"Wheat is exported to Czechia, Austria, Italy, and Germany, and they don't have an import ban for grain from Ukraine," Peter Marko from AgroPodnik farm told us. "That's why they can import, and they are our customers. So even when the import to Slovakia is banned, Ukrainian wheat goes somewhere else, and we are not protected."
Ukrainian workers inspect the emptying process of a rail wagon full of grain inside a silo belonging to the Swedish- Ukrainian BZK Grain Alliance firm. /Robert Nemeti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
So, Slovakian grain producers now have to fight, as they label it, unfair competition on their traditional export markets. They say Ukrainian grain producers can grow grain under less strict non-EU rules, using far cheaper labor, machinery and fuel.
That's why they can offer their grain to the EU market at prices that are lower than Slovakia. And the Slovakian government is helping transport Ukrainian grain to the third market. That was confirmed to us by Jozef Bireš, Slovakia's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
"Even after we made a ban in Slovakia for four commodities, it doesn't mean that the help, especially in transporting grain via Slovakia to where it is needed, has stopped," Bireš told us. "I visited last Friday the border of Ukraine and Slovakia, so we would intensify the transport and shorten the waiting time for the transport of grains that need this."
Slovakian farmers also say that the ban on imports of four grains is not stopping the imports of rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, and wheat flour to the country. All those commodities are also far cheaper than those domestically produced, hence a fall in demand for purchasing all those grains from local producers.
Now the government and the farmers are facing an increasingly difficult task - how to continue supporting Ukraine while at the same time preserving their own agriculture industry.
Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday