EU agreement fails to increase trade between Estonia, Ukraine

Trade between Estonia and Ukraine has not increased despite a special EU agreement. One reason is that Ukrainian manufacturers face disruptions due to the war.
Oleg Gross, owner of the Grossi retail chain, said Russian goods disappeared from store shelves with the outbreak of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
However, demand for Ukrainian products has grown as customers are used to buying goods of Slavic origin, he told Wednesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera".
"Consumption started to increase, and at the same time, we deliberately increased the share of Ukrainian goods to help them economically. And I think that to this day, [the number of] Ukrainian goods has increased about fivefold. Canned food, biscuits, confectionery, and chicken eggs have been added recently," he said.
However, goods from Ukraine do not make up a significant part of the company's total sales, Gross added.
Neither supermarket chain Maxima nor Selver is selling more products from Ukraine as many of the largest suppliers have been ruined by the war.
"Last year we sold around 300 products of Ukrainian origin, and we will continue to do so this year with roughly the same number of articles. There has been no significant change in product growth," said Selver's Kristjan Anderson.
Ukraine is Estonia's 26th largest export producer. Over the last two quarters, Estonia increased its imports of wood, agricultural products and food, including alcohol, from Ukraine.
"This share has not changed much. In the case of Ukraine, it accounts for less than half a percent of our export-import volumes. We are talking about €100 million trade in both directions," said the Bank of Estonia's Peeter Luikmel.
Due to the war, Ukraine has a free trade agreement with the European Union which lasts until the end of the summer, he said.
This situation has caused some issues with countries over grain exports, such as Poland. But this is not the case in Estonia, Luikmel said.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Helen Wright
Source: Aktuaalne kaamera