Ukrainian companies carried out 362 thousand shipments to Poland in January-November 2023

In January-November 2023, the number of crossings of the Polish border by vehicles with Ukrainian registration amounted to 362.3 thousand, the Ministry of Restoration reports, citing data from the State Customs Service.

In 2021, this figure was 229 thousand, in 2022 – 307 thousand.

The number of shipments of Ukrainian companies to Poland increased last year due to the import of fuel and humanitarian goods. In the first 11 months of 2023, the number of border crossings of vehicles with commercial cargo amounted to 279 thousand out of the total, 68 thousand were for fuel transportation, and about 15 thousand were for humanitarian cargo.

At the same time, Polish carriers operated 132.2 thousand flights to Ukraine in the same period (183.8 thousand in 2021, 174 thousand in 2022).

«In the ratio of commercial bilateral transportation between the countries, they occupy 33% of the market, while Ukrainian carriers occupy 67%. Prior to the full-scale invasion, the market share of bilateral transportation was 40% and 60% between Polish and Ukrainian carriers, respectively,» the Ministry of Reconstruction said.

According to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Vice Prime Minister for Recovery and Minister of Community, Territorial and Infrastructure Development, the key reason for the growth in the number of transportation operations by Ukrainian companies is the response to the consequences of Russian aggression.

«Transportation of fuel, humanitarian and military cargo accounts for about 20% of the total structure of all transportation. At the same time, Ukrainian carriers operate flights all over Ukraine. They transport goods to Kharkiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and other frontline regions where international carriers do not operate flights in most cases due to security reasons,» he said.

Kubrakov added that this does not have a critical impact on the bilateral transportation market with Poland. Instead, according to the European Commission, the agreement on «transport visa-free travel» with Ukraine has had a positive impact on all parties to the arrangement.

According to the minister, the Ukrainian side was in systematic contact with the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure, in particular on issues of balancing the transportation market and preventing a blockade. At the end of December 2023, a list of measures to unblock the border was agreed with the new team of the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure.

«However, since then, there have been no changes in the issue of unblocking the border. For our part, we have implemented the measures we promised. For example, we have launched a separate lane for empty trucks at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint, but due to the ongoing blockade, the results of this measure cannot be seen. The Polish side accepts only about 30 trucks there daily, so the electronic queue reaches tens of days of waiting,» explained Kubrakov.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the blockade of the Polish border, which began on November 6, 2023 and continues to this day, has hit the Ukrainian economy hard. According to the NBU, in November last year alone, Ukraine lost $160 million in exports and $700 million in imports. The losses of Ukrainian metallurgical and metal trading companies account for a small percentage of the total loss, but pose a threat to their export operations.