Mateusz Morawiecki made the declaration at a news conference on Wednesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
'We are ready to help'
Asked if Poland maintained its offer to provide a rail corridor for the export of Ukrainian grain, Morawiecki said: “We are ready to help get grain out of Ukraine.”
He added that otherwise there would be “an enormous shortage of wheat and other grain” in North Africa and the Middle East, which could lead to “hunger, increased inflation and a deep economic crisis in the countries of that region.”
Morawiecki warned that, under such a scenario, Europe could see “a big wave of migration” and there would be “big tensions between Europe and Africa.”
He added that Poland wanted to "avoid a repeat of the migration crisis which took place a few years before."
‘We’ll do everything we can’
Morawiecki told reporters that when it came to exporting Ukraine’s crops, “nothing will replace the ability to ship grain from Odesa and other Black Sea ports.”
He vowed: “For our part, we’ll definitely do everything we can to transfer at least some of the Ukrainian grain … to our ports and then to the countries that had earlier ordered Ukrainian grain.”
Last week, Polish Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk and Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk asked the European Commission to help Poland get grain out of Ukraine, according to officials.
“We need containers … and reloading equipment at the border,” Poland's Kowalczyk said at the time.
He added that otherwise Poland would "find it very difficult" to transfer 4 to 5 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain "as the government in Kyiv requested."
The agriculture minister also said that Poland was preparing transport routes, including a new terminal in the northern port city of Gdańsk, the PAP news agency reported.
Thursday is day 155 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, farmer.pl