Almost 25 million tons cereals are blocked in Ukraine and can not be transported abroad due to infrastructure difficulties and the blocked Black Sea ports, including Mariupol, said today an official of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The embargoes are considered one of the factors behind high food prices, which rose to record levels in March after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, before receding slightly again in April, according to the FAO.
Ukraine was the world’s fourth largest exporter of maize in 2020/21 and the sixth largest exporter of wheat, according to the International Grains Council.
«It is an almost bizarre situation we are currently seeing in Ukraine with almost 25 million tonnes of grain that could be exported but cannot be exported due to lack of infrastructure and port closures.“, Said Joseph Schmidber, Deputy Head of the FAO’s Directorate of Trade and Commerce, in an online briefing for journalists from Geneva.
THE Schmidt stated that full silos could lead to shortages of storage space during the next harvest in July and August.
“Despite the war, the harvest conditions do not seem so terrible. “This could really mean that there is not enough storage capacity in Ukraine, especially if there is no wheat corridor for export from Ukraine,” he said.
Another concern is reports that some grain warehouses have been destroyed in the conflict in Ukraine, he said, without giving details.
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