The UN World Food Program (WFP) is considering buying Ukrainian grain for countries in the Middle East and Africa, Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said.
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The matter was discussed by Minister Mykola Solsky and WFP Executive Director David Beasley at their meeting in Kyiv, the ministry's website stated on Friday.
The pair "discussed the possibility of buying surplus grain in Ukraine at the WFP's expense to provide African and Middle Eastern countries with food," the statement said.
Solsky stressed the need to unblock Ukrainian seaports and navigation routes to ensure the exports.
"To stabilize the situation, it is important to ensure the logistics of the shipments of agrarian products from Ukraine via unblocked ports and alternative routes. Besides, Ukraine's small and medium-sized farms and agricultural enterprises, which play a big role in providing national and world food security, need urgent assistance," Solsky was quoted by his ministry as saying.
On April 13 UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the current situation in Ukraine, a big agricultural exporter, could lead to food crises in a number of countries.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the alternative logistical routes which bypass Ukrainian ports have an estimated capacity of 600,000 tonnes of crops per month. This could be increased to 2-3 million tonnes by increasing the capacity of rail and logistical crossings on Ukraine's border with the European Union.
Ukraine used to export up to 5 million tonnes of crops from its Odesa and Mykolaiv ports, whose blockade now means the country can export only around 500,000 tonnes per month. This costs Ukraine about $1.5 billion in monthly export profits. ■
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