Remember all the talk about how critical it was to get Ukrainian and Russian grain shipped out of the country to feed the hungry in Africa and Asia? Well, it turns out that the EU has used the charity food drive to fill up its own fridge – and all to the net detriment of its own farmers. While Ukrainian grains are pouring into the EU, Russian grain and fertilizer destined for Africa has been blocked by Western sanctions impacting shipping, insurance, and payments through the SWIFT system from which its Russian Agricultural Bank has been removed. And although only half of the grain deal is actively being executed – however poorly and detrimentally – the United Nations seems unwilling to intervene to rectify its own initiative.
After all the Western pearl-clutching, Russia agreed to a deal last year with the West to ensure exports of both Russian and Ukrainian grain from the region via the Black Sea. But it’s starting to look like all the hand-wringing was just a pretext to get more Ukrainian grain into the EU, with African countries getting just 1-2% each, according to the United Nations data for the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Until recently, anyone even suggesting that Ukrainian grain was largely heading to the EU was accused of peddling disinformation. As far back as July of 2022, Polish farmers were worried that, because 80% of the grain coming out of Ukraine was going through their country, it risked leaking into the Polish market. But at the time, the Polish Agriculture Minister said that any suggestions of Ukrainian grain ending up on the Polish market were the result of “information chaos and the dissemination of false information.” The harm to Polish farmers turned out to be such very real news that the same agriculture minister has now resigned over the farmes’ ire, and the EU is now tossing real cash to the tune of billions of euros at the problem that they’ve created for themselves. All this flooding of the EU with Ukrainian grain could have been avoided if it had simply ensured that the grain was used for its stated purpose. Russian President Vlaidmir Putin has been warning all along that the food was being misdirected. “From August 1, 2022, to March 20, 2023, 827 ships left Ukraine, of which only 3 million tonnes of grain were sent to Africa and 1.3 million to the poorest countries in Africa. As I said, almost 45% went to well-fed European countries, despite the fact that this whole deal was presented under the pretext of ensuring the interests of African countries,” Putin underscored at the Russia-Africa Parliamentary Conference in Moscow earlier this year.
Taking matters into their own hands amid persistent supranational incompetence, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia recently decided to just ban Ukrainian agricultural imports outright.
Som sagt, EU är så korrupta att vi står på samma nivå som USA.
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