The decision of the Government and President of Ukraine to send 50,000 tons of grain to Somalia and Ethiopia as humanitarian aid is a timely move, while Ukraine itself currently has enough grain to meet its own needs and help others, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solskyi has said at a press conference in Brussels following the meeting of the Council of EU Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries.
“There is enough wheat in Ukraine to meet domestic needs. It’s now the cheapest in the world here, in the country. We have more than 20 million tons in stock, of which more than 70% is to be exported. Indeed, for a week or two there were rumors that Ukraine itself was in a difficult situation. Indeed, but these countries are also in a difficult situation. The value of such a step is all the greater,” said the Ukrainian minister.
He recalled that, in line with the decision of the Government and the Decree of the President of Ukraine, 50,000 tons of food wheat would be delivered to Somalia and Ethiopia, 25,000 tons each, as humanitarian aid from Ukraine. Transportation of grain will be organized from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine with the assistance of the World Food Programme.
Answering Ukrinform’s clarifying question of how exactly the Russian war affected the forecast harvest volume this year, Mykola Solskyi said that it stood at approximately 65-67 million tons, including grain and oil crops. Last year, it was 108 million tons. But then it was a record harvest in the entire history of Ukraine, and it was harvested in peacetime.
“Last year’s 108 million tons was a record for the entire history of Ukraine and agriculture. In addition, this harvest was collected from the entire territory of Ukraine, including those areas that are currently under temporary occupation, and which we did not include in this year’s calculation. Therefore, if you compare the 65-67 million tons of grain from the territory that we now control with the harvest from the same territory last year, this is not such a significant drop, within the framework of the average yield in Ukraine for the past five to seven years,” noted the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food. (Ukrinform/Business World Magazine)