Business news from Ukraine

German Foreign Minister proposes to buy Ukrainian grain to intensify its exports under leadership of EU

Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Berbock said that she supports the proposal of the European Commission to appoint a central coordinator represented by the EU, who will buy grain in Ukraine and rationally distribute its exports through existing logistics channels.
She made the corresponding statement on July 18 after visiting the Romanian port of Constanta, which transships significant volumes of agricultural raw materials from Ukraine under the blockade of Ukrainian seaports, according to the Spiegel website.
“We should think about whether to buy up all (Ukrainian – IF-U) grain, so that later we can distribute it logistically much faster,” the German minister was quoted as saying.
Burbock recalled that due to the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports, Ukraine has accumulated 18 million tons of agricultural products ready for export. After four-party talks between Ukraine, the OO, Turkey and the Russian Federation, there is hope for the deblockade of Ukrainian export infrastructure in the Black Sea, but it is still important to look for alternative grain routes, for example, through Constanta.
As reported, on June 28, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a draft agreement with the UN World Food Program (WFP) on the resumption of its office in the country, which will allow the organization, among other things, to purchase agricultural products from Ukrainian companies to carry out international humanitarian programs.
WFP is expected to participate in the purchase of agricultural and food products from Ukrainian companies for the needs of UN international humanitarian projects.
People’s Deputy Dmitry Solomchuk wrote in June that the uncertainty with the export of Ukrainian grain, leading to a global food crisis and rising food prices, can be resolved by buying last year’s and this year’s crops from Ukraine for a total of $30-35 billion through a specially created fund. This will contribute to the development of exports from the country and its internal processing in the agro-industrial complex, as well as provide the Ukrainian agricultural sector with working capital and the opportunity to continue working in the conditions of the military invasion of the Russian Federation.

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GERMAN FM VISITS UKRAINE

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit Ukraine again on Monday, February 7 and will also go to the contact line in Donbas, the ministry’s spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said.
“The minister will visit Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday…. She will visit Zaporizhia and from there will go to the contact line,” Sasse said.
In addition, Baerbock will meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and will also visit the monument to the victims of the Holodomor.
Earlier it was reported that Baerbock will make this trip to Ukraine together with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
In January, Baerbock already visited Kyiv before going to Moscow.

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