Ukraine reports plummeting grain exports

Deliveries to the global market are down 55% year-on-year since the start of June, data shows

Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture said on Monday that grain shipments abroad have amounted to 777,000 tons so far this month. That is a 55% drop compared with the same period of 2021.

According to the ministry, 689,000 tons of corn, 63,000 tons of wheat, and 21,000 tons of barley were exported. Data showed that in January, the month before the start of Russia’s military operation, Ukraine exported 6 million tons of grain.

The global food market, already affected by weather and the Covid-19 pandemic, was dealt another blow by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow. The two countries exported more than a quarter of the world’s wheat.

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The situation has sparked fears of global food insecurity and hunger. The executive director for the UN’s World Food Program, David Beasley, had earlier said that 49 million people in 43 countries are already “knocking on famine’s door.”

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