National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 06/05/22
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Countries importing agricultural products, primarily the Middle East and Africa, will not be able to do without export supplies of Ukrainian agricultural products, since it is physically impossible to replace its volumes with supplies from the aggressor country of the Russian Federation or from any other, this was stated by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky on the air of Ukraine 24 TV channel on Friday.
“We supplied 10% of world wheat exports, more than 15-20% of barley, more than 50% of sunflower oil. On average, 50 million tonnes of agricultural products were exported from Ukraine. In record years, this figure even reached 65 million tonnes. Today there is no way to find an alternative to such volumes and replace our products. It is physically impossible to do this even in the next three to five years,” the deputy minister emphasized.
According to him, the blockade by Russian warships of key Ukrainian seaports in Odesa and Mykolaiv and the mined areas of the Black Sea led to a drop in exports of agricultural products from Ukraine to 15-20% of pre-war figures. Also, this has already led to its significant rise in price and its physical shortage around the world, especially in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
“If the situation with the war and the blocking of ports continues, for example, up to six months, the countries of these regions will, in principle, have no grain. And this means famine,” Vysotsky stated.
According to him, the Ukrainian government is working to expand the physical export of agricultural products through alternative logistics routes, which allowed it to quadruple its exports in April compared to March 2022.
“This is still not enough, but there is significant progress. And we see in May that there is still an opportunity to increase export performance. Therefore, there are two strategies here: first of all, our victory and unblocking the ports, and the second is the expansion of these alternative ways of marketing products,” he said.
Today, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine estimates the losses of port infrastructure from the war with the Russian Federation at tens of billions of hryvnias, but the exact figure will be given only after gaining access to all infrastructure, which is currently located in the temporarily occupied territory.
“The most damaged infrastructure in the Mariupol seaport, there is also damaged infrastructure in the Berdyansk seaport, in the Olvia port, there is some damage in the Chernomorsk seaport, the Nikolaev seaport. But we cannot say exactly the number of damage in ports we do not control, as it is necessary to gain access to this infrastructure. However, today we understand that we are talking about tens of billions of hryvnias, but we will be able to fix the exact figure when we get access to this infrastructure,” Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy said. Vaskov during a briefing at the Ukrainian Media Center on Friday.
He noted that today the seaports of Mariupol, Berdyansk, Skadovsk and Kherson, which are located in the temporarily occupied territory, are closed.
“As for the ports of Pivdenny, Nikolaev, Odessa, Chornomorsk and Belgorod-Dnestrovsk, shipping from these ports is impossible from February 24, so they work exclusively with cargo and fleet, which, as of February 24, February was already under processing. This is 20% activity compared to peacetime,” the deputy minister said.
According to him, the Danube ports (Ust-Danubsky, Izmail and Reni) operate in the usual mode.
Since the beginning of the 2021/2022 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of May 5, Ukraine has exported 46.0 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 17.9% or 7.0 million tons higher than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the Information and Analytical Portal of the Agroindustrial Complex of Ukraine, by May 5, 18.53 million tons of wheat were exported (22.5% more compared to the same date in 2020/2021MY), 21.33 million tons of corn (+11.4%), 5.68 million tons of barley (+37.8%) and 69.7 thousand tons of flour (-34.4%).
161.9 thousand tons of rye were also delivered to foreign markets against only 1.7 thousand tons a year earlier.
Thus, for the week of April 28 – May 5, Ukraine exported about 300 thousand tons of grain crops, including almost 270 thousand tons of corn, 20 thousand tons of wheat and 10 thousand tons of barley. Such a decline is explained by the blockade by the troops of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation of Ukrainian seaports – its key export infrastructure.
As reported, in 2020/2021, Ukraine exported 44.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, including 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley. Also, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye were delivered to foreign markets.
In addition, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops in 2019/2020 MY.
Deputy Head of the Office of the President Rostyslav Shurma in March called the goal of Ukraine in 2022 to harvest at least 70% of last year’s crop.
Since the beginning of the war, Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group has allocated UAH 1.176 billion to solve social problems of people, as well as to help the military.
Starting February 24, the group has largely restructured its operations, according to a company press release. By the decision of shareholders Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky, in addition to supporting the economic stability of Ukraine, the company threw all its efforts into helping Ukraine and Ukrainians.
At the same time, humanitarian support for the population in several key areas has become a 24/7 job for many Metinvest employees. Thus, together with DTEK (the SCM energy business), Metinvest became one of the founders of the Saving Lives humanitarian project. The work of the project is coordinated with the Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky Foundations.
The main objective of the humanitarian initiative was the purchase and delivery of humanitarian goods, primarily food products, from Europe to Ukraine. In two months, about 30,000 people received assistance. Thanks to charitable contributions from almost 70 companies from around the world, 1,644 tonnes of food, essential goods, hygiene products and medicines were transferred to the affected areas.
In close cooperation with the Ministry of Health, a medical assistance program was launched in Zaporizhia, Kryvy Rih, Kamianske, Pokrovsk and Avdiyivka, which combines the purchase and transfer of thousands of sets of medicines, as well as the purchase of medical equipment for hospitals and outpatient clinics. The company also donated 150 tonnes of oxygen to COVID-19 patients.
Foreign trade turnover by the most important positions in 2021 (export)
SSC of Ukraine
