Romanian farmers and truck drivers are protesting against the import of cheap Ukrainian grain which is unbalancing the internal market, and are demanding subsidies on fuel.
In a line of around twenty kilometers, hundreds of goods trucks wait near the Siret border post, in northern Romania. All come from Ukraine. At the origin of this blockage, Romanian farmers, angry at imports of Ukrainian cereals which are unbalancing the domestic market.
After February 2022 and the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, several European states have decided to open their doors to Ukrainian cereals to support the economy of their neighbor at war… at the risk of weaken national producers.
Since Monday January 15, farmers have blocked several border areas of the country, and even the large freight port of Constanza, to alert the authorities to their situation and to ensure that Ukrainian cereals only transit through Romania. They were joined by truck drivers who are demanding fuel subsidies.
Among their demands: a moratorium on loan repayments, faster payment of agricultural subsidies, or even the establishment of separate corridors at border crossings to separate trucks from Ukraine from those from the European Union.
The Minister of Agriculture and farmers’ associations announced on Monday January 15 that they had reached an agreement which satisfied the key demands of the demonstrators… without, however, putting an end to the mobilization.