The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) deepens cooperation with Ukraine in the context of the blocking of its maritime agricultural exports by warships of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, the issue of the organization’s purchase of Ukrainian grain and its subsequent delivery to countries that are threatened hunger.
The relevant issue was discussed by Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky and WFP Executive Director David Muldow Beasley during a meeting in Kyiv, according to the website of the Ukrainian department on Friday.
“The possibility of purchasing surplus grains in Ukraine at the expense of the World Food Program was discussed in order to provide food for the countries of Africa and the Middle East and prevent global famine in these regions, the threat of which is very real,” the ministry said in a statement.
The agency stressed that WFP has deployed large-scale humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians affected by the war. In particular, contacts have been established with bakeries, flour mills and food industry enterprises in Ukraine for the purchase of goods from them and subsequent delivery to the regions affected by the Russian military invasion.
“We are talking about about 40 thousand tons of food products. Seven warehouses have been opened in Kyiv, Lvov, Dnipro, Vinnitsa, Chernivtsi, Odessa and Kropyvnytskyi. And in Lviv, Vinnitsa and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, financial assistance is provided to immigrants,” Beasley quotes press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
In turn, Solsky during the meeting focused on the need to unblock Ukrainian seaports and shipping routes in order to ensure the export of agricultural products from Ukraine.
“In order to stabilize the situation, it is important to ensure the logistics of supplies of agricultural products from Ukraine through unblocked ports and alternative routes. In addition, small and medium-sized Ukrainian farms and agricultural enterprises, which play a big role in ensuring national and global food security, need urgent help,” – quotes the department of its head.
As reported, on April 13, UN Secretary General António Guterres said that the war in Ukraine could doom more than 1/5 of humanity to poverty, want and hunger unprecedented for decades.
Deputy Minister of Economy – Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka stressed that the reason for the threat to world food security and rising prices for agricultural raw materials is the blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russian warships, therefore the lifting of the naval blockade of Ukraine is more effective for the food security of the world than the creation of new special funds. He stressed that Ukraine must repulse the aggressor at sea and on land, so that Ukrainian grain and oilseeds would reach the world market in full.
To date, the capacity of alternative logistics routes bypassing Ukrainian seaports is estimated at 600,000 tons of crops per month. This figure can be increased to 2-3 million tons of agricultural crops per month by increasing the capacity of railway and logistics crossings at the borders with the EU countries.
Before the Russian military invasion, Ukraine monthly exported up to 5 million tons of agricultural products through the ports of Odessa and Nikolaev, but now, due to their naval blockade by the Russian Federation, the country can transport about 500 thousand tons of grain monthly. This leads to a monthly shortfall of about $1.5 billion in export earnings.
