The grief of Ukrainian farmers after the withdrawal of Russia from the grain agreement

Vitali Bylenko looks sourly at his overflowing barn. After what Russia get out of the agreement that allowed Ukraine export grain for him Black SeaSelling your harvest has become a mission full of obstacles.

Moscow decided this week not to extend the pact, key to world food, concluded in July 2022.

But according to Bylenko, the agreement negotiated by the UN and Turkey had hardly worked for months. since winter “it was only applied on paper”, said a Ukrainian farmer.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers and its exports help feed several countries, especially African countries, which now fear hardship.

Given the few ships that arrive at the Ukrainian ports, blocked by the war, Bylenko began to use alternative routes to export.

“We had few purchase offers in Odesa”said the farmer, who transported his harvest to small river ports.

Low prices

The wheat, corn and sunflower that he grows on his 1,300-hectare farm, where he employs 35 people, leave for neighboring Romania.

“I think that for the remaining five months (of the current year), that will not change substantially”estimated.

But the route through Romania is more expensive and complex than that of the Black Sea. The river ports are 200 km further from his farm than the port of Odessa.

“Our profits have decreased”said the farmer. With no other outlets, grains will now flow into Romania, further plunging prices, he predicted.

In his silos he has 400 tons of wheat. “Before the war the price was around US$270 per ton, now buyers offer us US$120. We would like at least 135”Bylenko detailed.

To maintain its grain exports, Ukraine has proposed joint patrols with other Black Sea countries, but Moscow and kyiv have threatened to attack ships approaching their ports.

Although the situation is difficult, for now it is less urgent than last summer, when farmers did not know if they could sell their produce, Bylenko said.

Cereals have an important symbolic meaning in the Ukraine, a country with a strong agricultural tradition and where millions of people died in 1932-1933 during the Great Famine imposed by Stalin.

sell at a loss

The office of Liudmyla Martyniuk, director of the Kivchovata Agro food company, is decorated with sheaves of wheat and a portrait of the Ukrainian poet Taras Chevchenko.

With more than 30 million hectares of arable land in Ukraine, “It is very important for us to have access to the markets of EuropeAsia and Africa”said Martyniuk.

The end of the cereal agreement is “very bad” because it means that Ukrainian producers will probably be forced to sell at a loss, he explained.

It is also concerned about the possible impact of this crisis on African countries. “We cannot allow a new famine in Africa”, held.

His company grows wheat, corn, sunflower and sorghum, with the support of Japanese investors.

The harvest will be sold at much lower domestic market prices, he lamented.

Faced with the closure of the Odesa seaport, his company also depends on river ports to be able to export.

“We have no other solution” said.

Source: AFP