Reading Time: 3 minutes Istanbul/Kyiv | Reuters – Three grain ships left Ukrainian ports on Friday while the first inbound cargo vessel since Russia’s invasion was due in Ukraine to load, as Kyiv called for the safe passage deal to be extended to other cargoes such as metals. The July 22 deal marked a rare diplomatic breakthrough as war […] Read more
Ukraine seeks to extend shipping safe passage deal beyond grain
Ukraine grain storage crisis hits home as farmers harvest new crops
Outlook bleak if sea export route not reopened soon
Reading Time: 4 minutes Khreshchate, Ukraine | Reuters — Ukrainian farmer Mykola Tereshchenko hopes to start harvesting his wheat fields this week, but the smallholder in northern Ukraine has nowhere to store the grain. His silos are still crammed full with 1,100 tonnes of grain from last year’s harvest that he can’t export due to the closure of Ukraine’s […] Read more
Ukraine grain exports 48 per cent down so far in June
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters – Ukrainian grain exports in the first 22 days of June fell by 48 per cent from a year earlier to 907,000 tonnes, agriculture ministry data showed on Wednesday. The volumes included 803,000 tonnes of corn, 78,000 tonnes of wheat and 21,000 tonnes of barley, the data showed. Ukraine exported up to 6 million […] Read more
Russia’s war may deprive world of three Ukrainian wheat harvests, minister says
'Significant' decline expected in winter wheat acres
Reading Time: 3 minutes Kyiv | Reuters — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will create a global wheat shortage for at least three seasons by keeping much of the Ukrainian crop from markets, pushing prices to record levels, Ukraine’s agriculture minister told Reuters. Ukraine, sometimes known as Europe’s breadbasket, has had its maritime grain export routes blocked by Russia and […] Read more
Russian attack destroys warehouses of major Ukrainian port terminal, owner says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Kyiv | Reuters — Russian shelling destroyed the warehouses of one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural commodities terminals in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv over the weekend, authorities and the facility’s owner said Tuesday. The attack came at a time Turkey is trying to develop a U.N.-backed plan to start grain exports from Ukraine’s ports, […] Read more
Ukraine calls for moves to unblock ports, prevent global food crisis
Russia has mounted a blockade of Ukrainian ports
Reading Time: 2 minutes Kyiv | Reuters — Ukraine’s president called on the international community on Monday to take immediate steps to end a Russian blockade of his country’s ports to allow wheat exports and prevent a global food crisis. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made his comments in an online post after speaking to European Council President Charles Michel, who […] Read more
Ukrainian lawmakers vote to lift ban on sale of farmland by 2020
Reading Time: 2 minutes Kiev | Reuters — Ukrainian lawmakers voted Wednesday to remove a ban on the sale of farmland for the first time in nearly two decades, a move supported by the country’s foreign backers that risks a political backlash. The proposal must be voted on a second time to come into force. The ban would be […] Read more
EU deal yet to bear fruit for Ukrainian exporters
Reading Time: 5 minutes Gorodok | Reuters — Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union was meant to lure the bread basket of the former Soviet Union away from its longstanding ties with Russia by offering better access to the EU market. But debate about it was the spark that lit the Maidan street protests in 2013 and a […] Read more
Drought to shrivel Ukrainian wheat harvest in 2016
Reading Time: 2 minutes Kiev — Severe drought across half of Ukraine has hit winter sowing and could sharply reduce the country’s 2016 wheat harvest, a senior state weather forecaster said on Monday. The drought, in which the central Dnipropetrovsk region suffered its driest autumn in 50 years, could lead to a 20 per cent year-on-year fall in the wheat […] Read more
Russia, Ukraine may cut grain crop forecasts as temperatures rise
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moscow/Kiev | Reuters — Major Black Sea wheat exporters Russia and Ukraine may cut their official 2015 grain crop forecasts as recent hot weather has raised the risks to plants and rains elsewhere have delayed the harvest and dented quality, farmers and officials said. Russia and Ukraine’s agriculture ministries have said if hot weather persists […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
