Spain's agriculture minister said yesterday that a unilateral ban by a European Union member state on Ukrainian grain imports appeared illegal, while France said European solidarity was at stake.

However, Romania will also extend, albeit temporarily, a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain by 30 days, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday. The decision will give the Ukrainian government some time to come up with export proposals that will affect Romanian farmers as little as possible.

Marcel Cholaku said he would ask the agriculture and economy ministers for a 30-day joint order to extend the ban on Ukrainian grain imports "until things are clarified."

He specified that since Friday, the day the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain into the five Eastern European member states expired, Romania has not imported wheat from Ukraine.

"It was a gentleman's agreement between me and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, which we both respected. There are no data on the export of grain from Ukraine to Romania," said Çolaku, quoted by News.ro.

In addition, the Romanian government expressed its "regret over the fact that no European solution has been found to extend the restrictions on grain imports from Ukraine, a measure requested by the Member States affected by this decision".

And while Europe is trying in every way to ensure a path for Ukrainian grain, problems of a different nature are looming before it.

According to the company SGS, which annually creates a map of the quality of grain and oil crops in Ukraine, this year a significant decrease in the average content of proteins and crude gluten was registered for wheat.

According to their data, in 80% of 424 wheat samples taken from farms in 21 regions of Ukraine, the average protein content was 10.96%, and crude gluten – 18.5%, while last year these indicators reached respectively 11.8% and 21.6%. This protein content became the worst since 2008, and gluten - since 2011.

APC-Inform experts estimate the wheat harvest in Ukraine at 21.5 million tons, which is 4% more than the figure for 2022. However, taking into account quality assessments and compliance with flour milling conditions (the share of the samples corresponding to the indicators under delivery contracts), only 10% of the wheat will be in suitable condition.

This means that only 2.15 million tonnes of wheat from this year's crop will be suitable for the production of high-quality flour, which with domestic wheat consumption at 3.1 million tonnes will create a supply deficit of 0.95 million tonnes, according to graintrade.com.ua.