Discord is emerging in European unity over Ukraine as a result of cut-price Ukrainian competition. Romanian farmer Robert Vieru has 500 tons of wheat and 250 tons of sunflower seeds that remain unsold due to a glut of Ukrainian cereals and other produce that has nearly halved the value of his crops. Farmers across Eastern and Central Europe, along with their governments, are caught between solidarity with Ukraine and their own survival. Vieru said that prices have been driven so low by the flood of cheap food from Ukraine that selling would mean earning less than he paid to produce his crops.
“I feel sad for them, but my heart breaks for myself,” he said of Ukrainians living across the nearby border in Romania’s Danube River delta, as he opened the sliding door of a concrete barn filled with last year’s unsold harvest.
The situation is particularly difficult for governments facing elections this year or next.
2023-04-25 02:24:13
Source from www.nytimes.com