Unblocking Ukrainian ports is the only way to prevent a global food crisis and save Ukrainian agricultural producers, said Mykola Horbachov, the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association.
Horbachov was speaking to Ukrainian television ahead of the expected agreement in Istanbul Friday to secure safe corridors through the Black Sea for Ukrainian agricultural exports.
Russians had stolen about 500,000 tons of grain in occupied territories and about 1 million tons of grain remains in the elevators under the control of the occupiers, he claimed, estimating that the losses of the Ukrainian agricultural industry due to the war at about $20 billion.
Horbachov forecast that the grain harvest in the current season will decrease by 30-35%, which is about 70 million tons of grain and oilseeds compared to 106 million tons last season. And he said farmers will need help in order to be able to carry out the next sowing campaign, which will start in 2 months.
However, the harvest in Ukraine was gaining momentum, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy said Friday. Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions had each collected more than a million tons of new crop grain. Peas were threshed for more than 59% of the area, and rapeseed for a third.
It said figures from the regions showed that an area of 2.1 million hectares had been harvested so far.
Across Ukraine, the harvest of grain is underway – but every day brings new details about the perils farmers are facing as they try to bring in the crops, and about the theft of produce and equipment in Russian-controlled areas.
Source: CNN