In order to overcome the consequences of the war in Ukraine for the global agricultural sector, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new project worth 17 million dollars to help Ukrainian farmers to preserve the expected July-August harvest and to ensure the export of the most important agricultural products to international markets. This was reported by Ministry of Agricultural Policy .
The project, financed by Japan and implemented jointly with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, is aimed at restoring grain storage capacities and the functionality of supply chains from harvesting to export, as well as preserving the production potential of Ukrainian farmers to ensure continuity of production in the future.
“Ukrainian farmers feed themselves, their communities and millions of people around the world. Ensuring that they can continue to produce, safely store and gain access to alternative markets to sell their products is very important for access to food, preserving livelihoods, strengthening food security in Ukraine and ensuring that other import-dependent countries are stable and sufficient supplies of grain at an acceptable price,” noted Rein Paulsen, Director of FAO’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience.
Ukraine is one of the five largest global grain exporters, supplying more than 45 million tons of grain to the world market every year. According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, due to the blocking of the Black Sea ports, there are still 18 million tons of last year’s harvest of grain and oilseed crops in the country, which are waiting to be sent for export. Alternative rail and river routes cannot compensate for the loss of exports via sea routes and address bottlenecks in possible new supply chains that have yet to be resolved.
This year, Ukraine expects to collect up to 60 million tons of grain. But the slow export does not allow to free up space for storing the new harvest, as 30 percent of the available storage capacity is still filled with last year’s harvest.
“Within the implementation of a new project financed by Japan, FAO will address the problem of storage shortages by providing small producers with polyethylene sleeves for grain storage, equipment for loading and unloading grain, as well as supplying medium-sized producers and associations with various modular containers for storage. Support will be provided to farmers in ten regions of Ukraine: in the east, south, center and north of the country,” said Pierre Vauthier, head of the FAO office in Ukraine.
In addition, the project will provide technical support to the Government for the creation of alternative grain export routes and will contribute to the rapid expansion of the technical potential of the laboratory in Izmail, which will allow farmers to comply with international standards, in particular, to carry out quality checks of animal and food products for safety and certification.