Ukraine reported a major drop in grain exports, threatening food security for millions worldwide. Grain exports from Ukraine are down 64% so far in May compared to the same timeframe last year, the country’s agriculture ministry said Thursday according to Interfax Ukraine.
Ukraine accounted for 10% of global wheat exports in 2021, according to the United Nations, while Russia produced about 17% of all wheat globally. Ukraine’s ports have suspended activities since the war launched due to Russian blockades, and the U.N. estimates about 20 million tons of harvested grain are stuck in the country.
Meanwhile, global hunger is at a “new high,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday, estimating “tens of millions” of people worldwide will “edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years.”
Egypt Refuses Ukrainian Wheat
Egypt refused to allow a shipment of undocumented Ukrainian wheat to land at its ports, the country’s supply minister said in an interview with Bloomberg. Ukrainian harbors are sealed off by Russian forces in a blockade that’s cut off a vital source of grain and vegetable oils, sending global food prices soaring.
Ukraine accuses Russia of stealing grain in occupied areas and selling it abroad, and local traders have said Russian troops have confiscated grain, equipment and fertilizers in occupied areas in the southeast of the country.
“There was a Ukrainian wheat ship that Russia had allowed to sail, it is said it was going to the Egyptian ports.” Aly El-Moselhy said on the sidelines of an event in Cairo earlier this week. “The ship did not have shipping documents, nor any request from any government or even the private sector for this cargo. We refused its entry to the Egyptian ports and it moved away.”
Egypt relies on Russia and Ukraine for 42% of its grain imports. Its wheat bill is set to rise more than half to $4.4 billion this fiscal year that ends in June, as grain prices soared on supply concerns over the war and poor harvests elsewhere.
Egypt is in talks with Ukraine about how to receive contracted wheat while export routes are blocked. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that he was “grateful to Egypt for turning away a Russian ship loaded with grain stolen in Ukraine.” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry received a phone call from Kuleba, but the statement didn’t mention the wheat cargo issue.
