Agriculture minister on Biden's silos proposal: interesting, but we need to discuss details

Biden said on Tuesday that temporary silos would be built along the border with Ukraine in a bid to help export more grain and address a growing global food crisis.

"What Putin's war has done is not only try to wipe out the culture of Ukrainians, decimate people, and commit innumerable war crimes, but he's also - he's also prevented the grain, thousands of tonnes of grain that are locked up in those silos ready to be exported, but it can't get out through the Black Sea, because it'll get blown out of the water. So, we're working on a plan to get it out through other countries by rail," he said.

"Ukraine has a system like Russia has - a rail gauge that is different than the gauge of the rest of the tracks in Europe. So, we're going to build silos, temporary silos in the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland. So we can transfer [grain] from those cars into those silos into cars in Europe and get it out into the ocean, and get it out across the world. But it’s taking time," Biden added.

"President Biden's proposal is an interesting idea but it requires working out several details, including location, infrastructure, financing, ownership," Polish Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

"We also have to realise that finalizing this type of investment takes three-four months," Kowalczyk added.

According to unofficial information reported by "Fakty" TVN U.S. correspondent Marcin Wrona, Joe Biden's idea to build grain silos in Poland had come as a certain surprise for the Polish government as it had not been consulted with them. Wrona added, however, that Poland was open to such proposals and ideas.

Poland has said it could increase transit of Ukrainian grain up to 1.5 million tonnes per month but further increases hinged on overcoming logistical issues including a shortage of rail cars and the fact track gauges in Ukraine were different from those in Europe.

Placing silos at the border would allow the storage of the commodity that has to be transferred to different trains at the border.

Since the Russian invasion and blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, grain shipments have stalled and more than 20 million tonnes are stuck in silos. Ukraine says it faces a shortage of silos for a new crop.

The war is stoking prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies. Ukraine is also a major exporter of corn and sunflower oil and Russia a key fertilizer exporter.