Darya Kosunskaya, Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters – Russia’s food producers are facing logistic problems due to the migrant crisis at the Belarus-Polish border. If the situation gets worse, they may have to stop producing temporarily.

Poland closed many border crossings to Belarus in cargo transport because the European Union accused Minsk, accusing it of creating a standoff between the West and Minsk by pushing illegal migrants across its borders, mainly from the Middle East.

From a total six, the four operational Poland-Belarus border crossings have seen long tailbacks formed by trucks. The Belarusian border services says that six Lithuanian crossings are currently open.

Trucks transport raw materials and goods to Belarus and Russia, where they can be used by food manufacturers.

According to Reuters, 400-600 trucks can cross into Belarus at any given time from Poland. It slows down the normal wait times, which are normally 12-24 hour, to 2-4 day, according to a Russian market source.

This has increased transport costs as every day of waiting costs 500 euro. The source stated that crossing a different route will cost you between 300 and 400 Euros.

According to another market source, the losses suffered by Russian importers so far are not significant. The source stated that they had been increasing in severity over the past week and have improved somewhat this week.

The source stated that if the situation worsens, the threat of disruption to the supply chain could lead to factories being shut down.

According to a source, tailbacks in the other direction are already getting worse.

An international lobby group, including Metro, TetraPak, Pepsi and Danone, Nestle.

According to the Foreign Investment Advisory Council group, “The current situation can have a substantial impact on supply chains as well as the availability of goods and goods for the public,” they wrote.

The letter was addressed to Andrey Belousov, Deputy Prime Minister. He said that his office would investigate the matter. The Transport Ministry did not respond to the request.

According to the letter, around 10% of Russia’s total imports go through Belarus and Poland.

Similar tailbacks have developed on the Belarusian-EU border, according to data from the Belarusian Border Service. According to data, there are between 400 and 700 vehicles at the border at any given moment.