Grain from Ukraine initiative raised $150 million to support grain exports to poor countries

Ukraine is intensifying political pressure on the Russian Federation to unblock grain exports, and on Saturday a "Grain from Ukraine" summit was held in Kyiv, which envisages the export of $150 million worth of grain to the countries most suffering from hunger and drought.

The "Grain from Ukraine" initiative demonstrated that Ukraine is concerned about the global food security of the world, while the Russian Federation declares that the grain exported from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine through the mediation of the UN does not reach poor countries. At the summit, $150 million was raised for the export of grain to Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, and in a joint statement the participants emphasized that as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the world received 10 million tons of agricultural products less than during this period in 2021 year, resulting in reduced food security for millions of people around the world.

The date of the summit coincided with the annual Holodomor Memorial Day, a famine artificially created by the Stalinist regime that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932-1933.

In 2022/23, Ukraine reduced grain exports by 31.9% to 17.2 million tons compared to the same period last year, in particular:

• wheat - from 14.5 to 6.6 million,
• barley - from 4.95 to 1.4 million tons,
• corn - increased from 5.5 to 9.1 million tons.

During November 1-28, 4 million tons of grain were exported (in particular, 1.6 million tons of wheat and 2 million tons of corn), which is 31.4% lower than in November 2021. The pace of corn exports remains high (2 million tons compared to 3 million tons in November 2021), but delays in harvesting will soon reduce shipments.

As of November 24, 2022, 13.5 million tons of corn were harvested from 2.2 million hectares or 53% of the area in Ukraine with a yield of 6 tons/ha. For the next two weeks, dry and frosty weather is forecast, which will allow harvesting to resume and reduce grain moisture, which currently reaches 25-30%.

At the same time, the Russian Federation is intensifying grain exports and plans to ship 4.9-5 million tons of wheat in November, which will exceed last year's figure by 70%. This confirms that Russia has no problems with grain exports, although its authorities continue to accuse Western countries of blocking exports, as a result of which the grain agreement with the UN and Turkey does not work.