Ukraine remains one of the world leaders in the export of agricultural products

Ukraine continues to play a key role in ensuring global food security, remaining one of the main exporters of agricultural products in the world even after 2 years of war.

According to Taras Vysotskyi, Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in 2023, Ukrainian farmers exported products worth almost $22 billion. In his opinion, this shows that Ukraine, despite all the challenges, remains a reliable partner and is ready to provide food those who need it. During his speech at the "Global Synergy: Increasing and Strengthening Food Security in the Conditions of the Ukrainian Crisis" conference, he emphasized that the Ukrainian maritime corridor plays an important role in this, which currently provides 87% of the export of all Ukrainian agricultural products. In the current year, Ukraine plans to grow enough grain and oil crops to not only meet domestic needs, but also to continue exporting to world markets. 

As the government official noted, about 20 million hectares of agricultural land are currently used for the cultivation of these crops, of which more than 13 million hectares are spring crops that are currently being sown. Therefore, he is confident that Ukraine will continue to do everything possible to ensure food security.  

It is worth noting that, according to the data of the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine, in April 2024, the country's port operators handled 9.912 million tons of cargo. This is almost twice as much as for the same period in 2023. This increase in cargo traffic indicates that Ukrainian ports are gradually resuming their operations after the start of a full-scale war with Russia. An important role in this is played by the creation of the "Ukrainian Maritime Corridor", which allows the export of Ukrainian grain and other goods to countries around the world. 

The largest specific weight in April was the processing of grain cargoes - 6.3 million tons, which is 61.5% more than in April 2023. And in general, in the first four months of 2024, the ports of Ukraine handled 37.7 million tons of cargo, which is 71% more than in the same period last year. These indicators indicate that the Ukrainian economy is gradually adapting to work in war conditions and is finding ways to export its products to the world market. In fact, over the past six months, Ukraine has exported 27.6 million metric tons of grain and oilseeds through the Black Sea, which is only 0.2 million tons less than before the war. As noted in the material of The New York Times, this success became possible thanks to the displacement of the Russian fleet from the Black Sea, which ensured the unimpeded passage of ships with Ukrainian agricultural products. Therefore, in the first quarter of 2024, the export of grain from the Black Sea even exceeded the pre-war level.

Currently, Ukraine uses only Odesa Oblast ports to ship grain by sea. These ports are now close to pre-war seaborne export volumes, shipping an average of 4.1 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds each month.

In turn, it recently became known that the seaports of Russia increased the volume of grain transshipment by 11.8% compared to the indicator of the same period a year earlier - up to 25.3 million tons. It is also known that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has been massively registering companies in the occupied Ukrainian territories in order to hide theft and illegally export Ukrainian grain. According to Russian mass media, since February 24, 2022, the occupiers have already had about 500 such firms. In total, during the war, 892 new agricultural enterprises were registered on the captured lands of Ukraine. Most of them, namely 507, were created by citizens of the Russian Federation. According to 2023 data, in total, the Russians managed to export about 5 million tons of grain from the occupied Ukrainian territories.