President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the implementation of the grain initiative to export Ukrainian grain made it possible to reduce the severity of the food crisis.
“It is very important that the grain export initiative yields results. Since the beginning of its implementation, 16 vessels with grain for seven countries on three continents have already left Ukrainian ports. This is Europe, Asia, Africa,” he said in a traditional video message on Saturday.
According to him, “almost half a million tons of agricultural products are on board: corn, wheat, sunflower oil, soybeans and other goods that are absolutely necessary on the world market.”
“This has already made it possible to reduce the acuteness of the food crisis, gave some hope for peace to the countries that consume our agricultural products. And in the future, it can help to completely remove the food crisis from the global agenda,” he said.
Of course, the president noted, “if the partners ensure the implementation of the safe part of the initiative and prevent Russian provocations and terror at sea or against our ports.”
Zelensky noted that “the first ship has already arrived for loading under the UN World Food Program – this is the supply of grain, in particular, for Ethiopia, where the situation with hunger is especially severe. Now the vessel is being prepared for departure from the Yuzhny port.
According to him, “in less than two weeks, our three ports – Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny – managed to export such a volume that is equal to all agricultural exports by road in July and more than two-thirds of exports by rail over the past month” .
“These are jobs for our people, these are the funds that are needed for our sowing next year, and this is our state budget revenues. Increasing economic activity is an indispensable element on the path to victory,” the president said.
