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Nearly 25 million tonnes of grain are trapped in Ukraine, says UN

Nearly 25 million tonnes of grain are trapped in Ukraine and unable to leave the country due to infrastructure problems and blocked ports on the Black Sea, including Mariupol, a deputy director of FAO, the UN food agency, said on Friday. (6).

The lockdowns are seen as a factor behind high food prices, which reached record levels in March after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before easing slightly in April, the FAO said.

Ukraine was the world’s fourth largest exporter of corn in the 2020/21 season and the sixth largest exporter of wheat, according to data from the International Grains Council.

“It is an almost grotesque situation that we see at the moment in Ukraine with almost 25 million tons of grain that could be exported, but that cannot leave the country simply because of lack of infrastructure, blockade of ports,” said Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director. from FAO’s trade and market division, at a press conference in Geneva via Zoom.

Schmidhuber said full silos could result in storage shortages during the next harvest in July and August.

“Despite the war, harvest conditions don’t look so dire. This could really mean that there is not enough storage capacity in Ukraine, particularly if there is not an open corridor of wheat for export from Ukraine,” he said.

Another concern is reports that some grain stores were destroyed in the fighting in Ukraine, he added, without elaborating.

Since Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in late February, Ukraine has been forced to export grain by train across the western border or through its small ports on the Danube River.

Earlier this week, the head of the World Trade Organization told Reuters that she was “seriously concerned” about escalating food prices and was looking for solutions alongside other partners.

“It would really help the world if we could evacuate this grain (from Ukraine),” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. “There is a serious risk that food prices will rise and become unaffordable, which could lead to more hunger.”

Source: CNN Brasil

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