Baptiste Morin, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 6:18 a.m., January 31, 2024

In the crisis facing the agricultural world, Ukraine is singled out, particularly for its chicken exports to European Union countries, and therefore to France. Although the dynamics are there, the level of Ukrainian chicken imports remains low compared to those of other European countries.

Is Ukraine really the scarecrow of French farmers? Since the start of the blocking movement, some have denounced “unfair competition” from foreign countries, particularly from Ukrainian products. The lifting of customs duties by Brussels at the start of the war against Russia to support the Ukrainian regime would penalize French agriculture.

In reality, it's a little more complicated than that. Between 2021 and 2023, the volume of agricultural exports from Ukraine to the European Union increased threefold. If the dynamic is there, the levels nevertheless remain low.

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Competition “from neighboring countries” more than “from the other end of Europe”

This is the case for the famous Ukrainian chicken. Ukrainian imports do not weigh heavily compared to those coming from Poland, Belgium or the Netherlands. “The main competition for French farmers is above all farmers from neighboring countries rather than farmers from the other side of the world or the other end of Europe,” analyzes Sylvain Bersinger, chief economist of the Asterès firm. .

However, representatives of the agricultural sector are warning. According to them, Ukraine's entry into the European Union would be detrimental for French agriculture. A statement shared by Manon Aubry in the show

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. But according to geopolitical scientist Nicolas Tenzer, this is disinformation. “The theme of the risk that Ukrainian agriculture would represent is very largely amplified by a certain number of Russian propaganda networks,” he says at the microphone of Europe 1.

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In Sweden on Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron still announced that he wanted to regulate Ukrainian imports.