Henryk Kowalczyk made the statement at a regional conference of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Polish state news agency PAP reported.
'We'll be working 24 hours a day' to help Ukraine
Speaking to the media ahead of day two of the event in the central Polish city of Łódź, Kowalczyk said: “We are able to help Ukraine export its grain … although of course we can’t fully substitute for the Black Sea ports.”
Kowalczyk, who is also a deputy prime minister, added: "We’ll be working 24 hours a day, for sure, on border checks and transport, to help Ukraine export its grain."
'Problem of global food security'
Referring to the FAO conference, Kowalczyk said it “highlighted the problem of global food security” at a time when the Russian assault on Ukraine continued for another week.
“I would’ve wished for this meeting to take place in more discussion-friendly circumstances, but hopefully the talks will contribute to solving the problems that we are facing,” he said.
'Enormous losses' in food production: EU commissioner
Meanwhile, the EU’s agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, spoke at the event about the challenges for food producers in Central and Eastern Europe, the PAP news agency reported.
Wojciechowski, who is Polish, said that “Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine” was causing “enormous losses” in food production, farming and agricultural infrastructure.
He added that the European Commission was "watching the situation with the utmost concern."
The FAO’s four-day Regional Conference for Europe began on Tuesday with speeches by Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and the UN agency’s Director-General Qu Dongyu, who praised Poland’s growing importance in food production.
Wednesday is day 77 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, fao.org