Food Crisis: Millions of Tons of Grain Stuck in Ukraine as Russia’s War Blocks Exports

While Russia’s intensification of its war against Ukraine is disrupting food production, the product that has already been harvested can’t even be exported, a United Nations director has warned, claiming there are millions of tons of grain in the country “just sitting there”.

Regional director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme, Germany-based Martin Frick has said there are as much as four and a half million tons of grain just sitting at Ukrainian ports waiting to be exported. In comments reported by The Guardian, UN man Frick said: “None of the grain can be used right now. It is just sitting there… The world urgently needs these items of food from Ukraine.”

Though a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian refugees coming out of regions impacted by war and for humanitarian aid to get in are frequently discussed, Frick says there should also be a humanitarian corridor put in place for Ukraine’s enormous agricultural output to get to the rest of the world. He said, in comments reported by the Augsburger Allgemeine: “We demand… the grain trade routes remain open despite the Ukraine war.”

Wir brauchen humanitäre Korridore in der #Ukraine um 1. Menschen in der Ukraine zu erreichen und 2. zu ermöglichen, dass >20 Mio Tonnen Weizen, die seit Beginn des Krieges blockiert sind, über Schwarzmeerhäfen exportiert werden können – entscheidend für Millionen Menschen!

— Martin Frick (@cmfrick) April 27, 2022

Frick said that in all, some 20 million tons of grain has been blocked from leaving Ukraine so far this year. For comparison, the Guardian report claims that a combined 55 million tons of corn and wheat were harvested in Ukraine in 2020.- READ MORE