Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Markian Dmytrasevych, presented a series of requests to EU partners on Tuesday 14 June to help the country unblock ports and build up infrastructure and storage capacity to enable grain exports and preservation.
Addressing the Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, Mr Dmytrasevych recalled that more than 20 million tonnes of grain remain blocked in Black Sea ports and are not being sold in the global marketplace because of the war started by Russia. The country sold 1.8 million tonnes in May, compared to 5-6 million tonnes per month before the war.
At present, the maximum export capacity is 2.2 million tonnes per month.
The Deputy Minister asked to be able to use Romanian logistical capacities to export agricultural products, including grain from Ukraine. He also called for additional barges to be sent to transport grain from available Ukrainian ports. He also suggested the use of Romanian ports for fuel needs, as well as the establishment of multimodal terminals (shipping, rail, road) and increased inspections (five ships per day instead of two).
Storage capacity. Capacity was 75 million tonnes before the war and has been reduced to 60 million tonnes (grains) today due to the ravages of the war. Markian Dmytrasevych called on EU countries to provide storage capacity to “preserve the harvest and supply the world market”.
He also advocated social measures (recreating jobs) through the creation of new greenhouses, among other things. The only solution would be to defeat the Russian military forces to unblock Ukrainian ports, by any means, including new sanctions, he concluded.
Responding to questions from MEPs, the Deputy Minister said: - we have exported 3 million tonnes of grain since the beginning of the war (three months ago), of which only 20% was exported by road (problems of controls and documents required); - more than 90% of our exports were transiting through the Black Sea; - there are different rail gauge standards in the EU and Ukraine; - new crossing points should be created for trucks in convoys (hope of an agreement with Romania); - this year’s grain harvest will be reduced by 50% compared to previous years (46 million tonnes); - the grain storage deficit could be 4 million tonnes (10 million tonne deficit in October) and farmers could use plastic bags to store these products; - transporting grain by air is not possible at the moment. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)