The conflict in the East will hurt exporters
13:17
The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine may harm Polish exporters. KUKE, an export contract insurance company, warns that the previous war in 2014 reduced turnover by 45 percent.
In 2021 (by the end of November), Polish exporters sold goods worth €14.6 billion to the most important eastern markets – Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Almost half – €7.2 billion – went to Russia. The data from the Central Statistical Office show that the Ukrainian market, in particular, has been systematically gaining in importance in recent years. In the eleven months of 2021, the value of sales to Ukraine amounted to €5.7 billion and was about half a billion higher than in the entire 2020. In the last five years – since 2016 – it has increased by 65 percent.
“Sales of food products, construction products, and household equipment are dominant. We also insure large investments, such as the construction of shopping centers, in which the main contractors are construction companies from Poland. The cooperation network is getting wider, so the first consequence of the further escalation of Russia-Ukraine relations is the restriction of Polish business activity in this country,” Tomasz Ślagórski, vice president of KUKE – a company dealing with insurance of export contracts, said.
In his opinion, long-term, high-value projects are at the greatest risk.
