KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s shipments of food by road decreased 5.2% in the first 20 days of November amid difficulties on the Polish border caused by a drivers’ strike, brokers said on Wednesday.
Spike Brokers, which regularly tracks and publishes export statistics in Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app that 327,000 metric tons of agricultural goods were exported by truck from Nov. 1-20, versus 345,000 tons in same period in October.
Polish truckers have blocked roads to three border crossings with Ukraine to protest against what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The passage of vehicles through customs checkpoints on the border with Poland is continuing to decrease and totalled 3,700 tons of cargo per day, compared to the peak of 7,500 tons per day a month earlier,” Spike Brokers said.
It noted that traffic at border crossings with Romania, Hungary and Moldova was stable.
Ukraine’s government is expected to harvest 79 million tons of grain and oilseed in 2023, with the 2023/24 exportable surplus totalling about 50 million tons.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; editing by David Evans)
