Unblocking Ukrainian ports is the only way to avert a global food crisis and save Ukrainian agricultural producers, said Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association.
Horbachev was speaking on Ukrainian television ahead of the expected deal in Istanbul on Friday to ensure safe corridors across the Black Sea for Ukrainian agricultural exports.
The Russians stole around 500,000 tonnes of grain in occupied territories and around 1 million tonnes of grain remain in elevators under the occupiers’ control, he said, estimating that the Ukrainian agricultural industry’s losses due to the war are around US$. $20 billion.
Horbachov predicts that the grain harvest in the current season will decrease by 30-35%, which is about 70 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds compared to 106 million tonnes last season. And he said that farmers will need help to be able to carry out the next sowing campaign, which will start in 2 months.
However, the harvest in Ukraine is gaining strength, Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy said on Friday. The Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions collected more than a million tons of new grain.
Peas were threshed in over 59% of the area and rapeseed/kale in one third. It is said that the figures from the regions showed that an area of ​​2.1 million hectares has been harvested so far.
Across Ukraine, grain harvesting is underway – but every day brings new details about the dangers farmers face when trying to bring in crops and about the theft of products and equipment in Russian-controlled areas.
Source: CNN Brasil
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