Poland investigating fraud scheme relating to imports of Ukrainian technical grain
Ukrainian technical grain imports to Poland were part of a large-scale fraud involving dozens of companies, Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on Tuesday.
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According to the investigation, the companies involved imported thousands of tonnes of technical grain to Poland while concealing its origin and destination.
Technical grain can be used, for instance, for ethanol production or as a component for biofuels, but in Poland it was immediately sold after being imported.
"We are currently conducting seven joint proceedings. In total, we are talking about several million kilograms of grain, and several dozen business entities have been identified," said Hanna Bernat-Dzhanska, a spokeswoman for the Polish prosecutor's office.
"Those are the companies that imported the goods to Poland, as well as those that then sold them."
The prosecutor's office is still establishing how many companies fell victim to the fraud, Ms Bernat-Dzhanska said, adding that the buyers "did not know that the grain was from Ukraine and that it was imported as technical grain."
Earlier this year, Polish farmers started protests, believing that Ukrainian grain had brought down agricultural prices, which forced local producers to work at a loss.
The crisis that ensued led to Poland banning imports of a number of Ukrainian products.
Following the intervention of the European commission, Poland’s unilateral restrictions were replaced by EU measures, and the number of banned products was reduced to four, namely wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower.