Ukraine’s main food exports have almost halved since the start of the war

Data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture showed that exports of the country’s main agricultural commodities have almost halved since the start of the Russian invasion compared to the same period in 2021.

Russia began its attack on Ukraine on February 24, calling it a “special military operation”. As a result of the fighting, Ukrainian seaports were closed, leaving vast amounts of crops either unharvested or destroyed.

The ministry’s data, released late on Monday, showed that agricultural exports between February 24 and August 15 fell to 10 million tons from about 19.5 million in the same period last year.

The data also showed that Ukraine exported 3.8 million tons of corn, 1.4 million tons of sunflower seeds, about 1 million tons of sunflower oil and about 640,000 tons of wheat in that period.

Ukraine’s grain harvest in 2022 is expected to fall to about 50 million tons from a record 86 million tons in 2021.

At the end of July, three Ukrainian ports were opened on the Black Sea under an agreement between Moscow and Kiev brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

But even with the ports open, Ukraine’s agricultural exports were much lower than before the conflict, with the country exporting up to six million tons of grain a month.

The Agriculture Ministry said last week that grain exports in the 2022-2023 season until August 19 fell 51.6 percent from the previous year to 2.99 million tons.