Despite the war, Ukraine remains the world’s leading grain exporter

Despite the widespread war, Ukraine continues to be one of the world’s leading exporters of grain and food products. This is crucial for global food security, and the international community should support Ukraine’s efforts to export agricultural products and develop its economy.

This was stated by the Special Envoy for Ukraine of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Jan de Pav, during the panel “Ensuring Global Food Security” in Ankara, Ukrinform reports.

“Ukraine is one of the world’s leading exporters of grain and food, agricultural products. Thus, it is one of the guarantors of global food security because of its exports and their nature. And when this is impeded, when it is actually made impossible in many ways, as it was at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and is still the case, we need to support Ukraine in maintaining these efforts,” Jan de Pauw said.

He emphasized that Belgium supports efforts to ensure global food security for three main reasons: the global impact on the lives of millions of people, support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and countering Russia’s attempts to distort information and block food supplies from Ukraine.

“It is important to keep the Ukrainian economy as viable as possible, to make sure that the Ukrainian state can function… Preserving the capabilities of the Ukrainian economy, production, exports, trade, I think, are very important in support of Ukraine itself,” said the Special Envoy for Ukraine of the Belgian Foreign Ministry.

Jan de Pauw also noted that the negative reaction of the neighboring countries to the import of Ukrainian grain and agricultural products is one of the reasons for the destabilization of the situation. According to him, it is necessary to work carefully on this challenge to ensure the continued flow of agricultural goods to and through Europe.

Corinne Fleischer, Regional Director of the UN World Food Program, reminded that Ukraine is an important food supplier for the world, providing food for 400 million people.

“The World Food Program itself, through the Black Sea Grain Initiative, has provided 725 thousand metric tons of food to the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Yemen and other countries. And we continue to export products from Ukraine to Gaza, to various countries,” said Corinne Fleischer.

According to her, the program’s donors have provided $200 million to support supplies from Ukraine to the countries most in need.

Tags: Ukraine, export, grain, war