Robert Telus announced the move at a media briefing on Tuesday evening, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He was speaking after a meeting of a Cabinet crisis team, led by Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin, to address the inflow of Ukrainian grain to Poland.
The Polish agriculture minister told the media: “I have instructed the Main Veterinary Inspectorate to carry out strict checks on the grain stored in Poland, to ensure we have good-quality grain that guarantees the security of the Polish public.”
Telus said there would be “spot checks at various companies so that we can monitor the quality of grain stored in Poland.”
He added that the aim would be to determine “if any companies used substandard grain imported from Ukraine in the production of flour, for instance.".
“If anyone did that, they will be punished,” he vowed.
Poland seeking to re-export Ukrainian grain
Telus told reporters: “On Wednesday, there will be a meeting with the ambassadors of countries where we can potentially sell grain, where we have potential clients to ... export grain as soon as possible.”
He said that some 4 million tonnes of excess grain needed to be "removed from the Polish market" ahead of this year’s harvest.
He added that Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk had pledged that grain would enjoy “preferential treatment in railway transport and in the unloading of cargo in ports.”
Telus also said that Poland’s National Revenue Administration (KAS) had been tasked with monitoring the transit of Ukrainian grain “to make sure it doesn’t stay in Poland.”
Gov’t buys up grain to help Polish farmers
He added that the government last Friday launched an effort to buy up grain to help farmers.
“We have both government and European Union funds to help farmers, up to some PLN 1.2 billion (EUR 260 million) in total,” Telus told reporters.
Earlier on Tuesday, he met with farmers' organisations from Poland and four other countries affected by an influx of Ukrainian produce.
He said he would ask his counterparts in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to “jointly urge the European Union to change its stance on the removal of tariffs on goods and products from Ukraine,” the PAP news agency reported.
Poland grapples with influx of Ukrainian grain
Poland has admitted some 2.8 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain since Ukraine's Black Sea ports were blocked following Russia's invasion in February last year, the IAR news agency has reported.
Large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, have ended up staying in Central European states, due to logistics bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.
At the end of last week, Poland and four other EU countries sent a joint letter to the European Commission, demanding restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports, according to officials.
The move was initiated by Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who had previously criticised the EU executive for failing to deliver on its promise to send grain imported from Ukraine to Middle Eastern and African countries, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
On Friday, Poland’s Telus and his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Solskyi agreed to temporarily halt imports of Ukrainian grain to Poland “until this year’s harvest,” according to news outlets.
Under the deal, transit “will be allowed but will be closely monitored in both countries, so that Ukraine grain doesn’t stay in Poland,” the Polish agriculture minister said.
Wednesday is day 413 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvp.info
