Lithuania is discussing a joint response with Latvia and Estonia to efforts to transit Russian and Belarusian grain through the Baltic States, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius has said.
Sinkevicius said he discussed the issue by phone with his Latvian counterpart on September 7, amid reports that grain allegedly stolen from Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories could be transported through the Baltic countries.
The shipments would not be allowed to pass through Lithuania’s Klaipeda port “unchecked”, Sinkevicius told reporters in Klaipeda.
“The issue concerns not just Lithuania as a state; in this case, we are talking about three states – Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania,” he said. “We will, of course, carry out checks, monitor the situation and will not allow such cargo to pass unchecked.”
Lithuania supports Ukraine and does not want its port and rail infrastructure used to facilitate Russian grain shipments.
“We will certainly not allow our port infrastructure and railways to be used in such a way that doubts might arise later, as our partners in Ukraine are watching to see how we behave,” he said.
The Lithuanian Agriculture Ministry on September 7 asked the State Food and Veterinary Service to immediately investigate the origin of all grain transiting from Russia and Belarus, including both feed and food-grade grain.
The service last week took samples from one grain shipment at the port of Klaipeda and planned to have their origin determined at a foreign laboratory. It confirmed that no additional samples had been taken.
Sinkevicius said authorities wanted shipments to undergo genetic testing to establish their origin, although the volumes involved were relatively small by Lithuanian standards.
Agriculture Minister Kestutis Mazeika said the three Baltic States should verify the origin of both feed and food-grade grain arriving from Russia and Belarus.
Mazeika said Lithuania was considering requiring inspections at the border with Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region rather than at the Klaipeda port. That would allow the port to prioritise exports of Lithuanian grain, he said.
“Our priority is to free up the port for Lithuanian grain from Lithuanian farmers so that as much of it as possible can be exported,” Mazeika said.
Authorities are also considering extending mandatory origin testing to other food products, including edible oil, he said.
Mazeika said Lithuania would seek a European Union consensus on applying such checks to food products, which currently benefit from an EU exception covering both raw and processed food.
The issue has gained attention following reports that grain allegedly stolen from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia could be entering European markets through the Baltic states.
The Lithuanian president’s chief foreign policy adviser Asta Skaisgiryte on September 8 called for measures to prevent Russia from exploiting ports in Lithuania and other EU countries to export grain. (LRT)