Ukrainian grain body asks Kyiv to verify alleged Polish customs ban on storing transit grain

Why it matters

Rail transit through Poland is one of Ukraine's main land export routes at a time when Russian strikes on port and rail infrastructure have made maritime exports unreliable. Because Ukrainian grain arrives in broad-gauge wagons and must be reloaded into European-gauge wagons, customs warehouses act as the buffer that keeps reloading and onward dispatch synchronized. A restriction on that buffer could therefore ripple across the whole transit chain, raising costs, slowing deliveries and ultimately threatening Ukrainian grain production volumes already under pressure from the war.

What happened

On 8 September, participants in the Ukrainian grain market were informed by a Polish railway terminal and Polish transport companies that Polish customs had verbally banned the use of customs warehouses or silos for temporary storage of grain of Ukrainian origin. No written decision or regulatory document was produced to confirm the restriction.

The Ukrainian Grain Association responded by appealing to Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy to verify the reports. UZA noted that temporary storage is essential to rail transit because grain arriving in broad-gauge wagons must be reloaded into European-gauge wagons, and that reloading cannot run continuously because wagon arrivals, rolling stock, locomotives and reloading capacity fluctuate. Customs warehouses and silos, it said, act as the buffer that synchronizes arrivals, reloading and onward dispatch to EU buyers and other markets.

UZA warned that an effective ban would increase wagon idle time, congest border crossings and terminals, reduce the throughput of Polish rail infrastructure and raise logistics costs, and described the verbal, undocumented nature of the measure as creating legal and operational uncertainty for Ukrainian exporters, Polish terminals, carriers and European buyers. The association called on the ministry, if the reports are confirmed, to obtain an official written explanation from the Polish side on the legal grounds, scope and duration of the decision and to raise the matter with the Polish government and competent authorities.

Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy said it is studying the situation and establishing whether a systemic restriction exists and on which specific facilities it would apply, and that it is working on the issue with Ukrainian market participants and with the Polish side. Minister Taras Vysotskyi stressed the need to preserve stability of all available export routes amid Russian attacks on port and rail infrastructure and said Ukraine counts on a constructive position from European partners.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian sources frame the alleged Polish move as a direct threat to wartime export corridors and to the stability of western land routes that have become vital since Russian attacks disrupted Black Sea ports. They highlight the non-transparent, verbal character of the reported restriction and the uncertainty it creates for every party in the transit chain, and they emphasize that predictability of transit depends on constructive behavior by European partners at a moment when Ukraine's agricultural sector is already under severe strain.

Where reporting differs

Sources differ on the status of the alleged Polish customs restriction. UZA and market participants describe it as a verbal or oral ban already imposed by Polish customs, with no written document produced. Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy, by contrast, says it is still verifying whether a systemic restriction exists and on which facilities it would apply, treating the reports as unverified rather than as an established ban.

Background

A Polish regulation dated 15 September 2023 bans imports of certain Ukrainian agrarian goods into Poland while permitting their transit through Polish territory. Against that backdrop, the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce has appealed to the Polish Minister of Finance and Economy with a proposal to amend the regulation so that Ukrainian grain could be temporarily stored in Polish customs warehouses under customs control, without being released into free circulation, and continue afterwards under an external or common transit procedure. UZA has warned that, if maritime exports through Ukrainian ports remain blocked, Ukrainian grain production could fall by 12 million tonnes as early as 2027, forcing agrarians to cut sown areas.