(Bloomberg) -- Farmers have a history of discontent with the European Union, whether over how to tackle climate change or bureaucracy. Now another target for their anger risks escalating into a bigger political confrontation. 

A move by the EU this week to extend free trade measures with Ukraine has poured fuel on the already growing frustration among grain producers from Poland to France. A provisional deal early on March 20 to suspend duties and quotas for another year means Ukraine would be able to continue to sell wheat in the common market of 27 European countries. 

Ukraine is only one of the worries for European farmers, and the country isn’t to blame for the tumble in wheat prices. Imports, though, have become a rallying point. The disquiet presents a challenge for politicians as they balance priorities at home with support for Kyiv against Russia’s invasion.

Poland, where farmers blocked more than 500 roads again this week, threatened to extend its grain ban and even halt flows of wheat to other countries in the EU. “We are flooded by Ukrainian grains, and the government needs to find a solution,” said OPZZ farming union leader Slawomir Izdebski.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron has made support for Ukraine central to his campaign to thwart the rise of the far right at European elections in June. His government has been working to appease farmers, rolling out concessions ranging from fuel costs to pesticides and green rules.

“The feeling that prevails is that the European farmers are footing the bill for the war in Ukraine,” said Benoit Pietrement, chair of the grains council at national agriculture and fisheries agency FranceAgriMer. “Supporting Ukraine against Russia is absolutely important for Europe and the Western countries. But we should not be the only ones paying the price.”

Read More:  Farmers’ Revolt Threatens Election Year Upsets Around the World

French Foreign Trade Minister Franck Riester said in Paris on Wednesday that France and its EU partners were keen to protect the Ukrainian wheat industry given its importance to the country’s economy as it faces the Russian invasion.

Farmers in France are also getting some help. In a year when the government is cutting €10 billion ($10.9 billion) of spending, it announced more than €2.2 billion for agriculture so far. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also promised more negotiations with the EU to limit grain shipments from Ukraine, a move also advocated by Poland.

The anger has been palpable for weeks. The stand at the Paris agriculture fair at the end of last month looked like a scene out of Wall Street, just without the suits. Young farmers in dusty rubber boots frenetically argued about live wheat prices blinking red on their smartphones.

“How do you want us to continue? Unfair competition from Ukraine is affecting us all,” said Julien Caillard, a 34-year-old fifth generation wheat grower from the Yonne region southeast of Paris. “It was first impacting Ukraine’s neighbors, now it’s all the way to France.”

Introduced in June 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the so-called Autonomous Trade Measures give Kyiv almost unfettered access to the EU market. The latest plan in Brussels is to ensure tariffs on Ukrainian produce are restored in the event of a surge in imports on such things as corn, poultry, sugar and eggs.

Grains are excluded, though, something that makes the proposals “unacceptable,” according to Copa-Cogeca, a lobby group that says it represents 22 million farmers. The measures are still to be approved by the European Parliament in a vote in April and then by member states, and EU ambassadors have asked for more time to scrutinize the text.

Along with the pain from depressed global prices driven by record shipments from Russia, the farmers are feeling the indirect effects of grain arriving in the EU via Ukraine’s neighbors. The EU imported more than 17 times the amount of soft wheat from Ukraine in the 2022-2023 season compared with the previous year, before the war, according to French agency Intercereales. 

France, meanwhile, has been reducing every month its forecast for grains exports to the rest of the EU, where traditional buyers like Spain have been purchasing significant volumes from Ukraine, FranceAgriMer said. 

French crops haven’t “been able to be as competitive as Ukrainian wheat so Ukraine is taking that share of the market,” said Delphine Drignon, head of the Europe desk at Intercereales. Spain, which has suffered from a drought, bought 73% of the soft wheat imported from Ukraine this season as of March 4, she said.

Farmers in the EU say the problem is that Ukrainian rivals can sell at cheaper rates and with less stringent environmental checks, and they also  regained the ability to ship through the Black Sea.

They also have the edge in terms of lower labor costs and much larger farms, according to Eric Thirouin, president of French grains growers’ group AGPB. That's despite having to confront the war.

“Solidarity with Ukraine was real when they were not able to export through the Black Sea,” said Thirouin, who also manages a farm that has been in the family since 1560. “But it makes no sense to keep giving them free access.”

The French have joined their Eastern European counterparts who have been protesting for longer. Angry farmers have been testing support for Ukraine elsewhere, converging on Brussels earlier this year. And it’s the Poles who say they have most to lose.

“We are the most pro-Ukrainian state and nation, but we are facing the biggest problems related to the war,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a press conference in Warsaw on Feb. 28. “We pay too high a price for the decision to launch free trade with Ukraine. We cannot afford it.”

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said recently the best way to resolve the situation was to help Ukraine move its crops to countries that traditionally bought Ukrainian products. Farmers say the EU is more willing to listen on Ukrainian exports of poultry, sugar and eggs, but grain is more of a financial lifeblood for Ukraine.

“The EU is determined to keep supporting the Ukrainian economy,” said Arnold Puech d’Alissac, who runs a family farm near Rouen and heads the Rome-based World Farmers’ Organisation. “And grains are just the easiest way for them to earn money.”

--With assistance from Agnieszka Barteczko and Aine Quinn.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.