Perfect storm for Eastern Europe’s grain producers

Commercial vessels including those that are part of Black Sea grain deal waiting to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of yenikapi during a misty morning in Istanbul, Turkiye, in this file photo taken in October last year. — Reuters

WHEN global grain prices started falling last year after a spike in the first months of the war in Ukraine, Poland’s then agriculture minister urged farmers to hang on to their harvests in the hope of a rebound and better returns. The bet backfired badly for some.

Nearly a year later, Polish farmer Artur Konarski still has about 150 tonnes of grain stuck in storage and he says some of his competitors in the European Union’s third-biggest wheat producer have even bigger stocks of crops languishing in silos.