Ukraine’s farmers running out of storage as harvest looms

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prevented millions of tonnes of grain from being exported, leaving the country’s farmers with limited storage space for this year’s harvest.

The blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports is fuelling fears of a global food crisis as huge shipments of crops are prevented from leaving the country.

Some farmers have tried to reroute grain through Europe by rail and road, to free up storage space and generate cash, but the seaport blockade has held up most of Ukraine’s exports.

See also: EU border delays stymie Ukrainian attempts to move grain

Joseph Glauber, former chief economist at the US Department of Agriculture, told euronews that since the current invasion started in February, Ukraine had been able to export only 1.5-2m tonnes of grain a month, down from more than 6m tonnes.

The EU has warned that Russia’s military assault puts the world in danger of a famine and said grain exports through the Black Sea must urgently resume.

Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said: “[Vladimir] Putin’s troops shell, mine and occupy arable land of Ukraine, attack farm equipment, warehouses, markets, roads, bridges in Ukraine and block Ukraine’s ports, preventing the export of millions of tonnes of grain to global markets.”

Mr Borrell said food prices, already affected by the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, had never been as high as they were today in real terms.

“Many experts warn that the worst is yet to come if Ukrainian exports remain blocked until next harvest,” he added.

Victor Boltruchuk, a dairy farm worker in the west of Ukraine near the Polish border, said the Black Sea ports blockade was causing major disruption for the country’s farmers.

“The biggest problem for many farmers in the coming months is not only the storage capacity but the ability to finance the next year’s crops, because they need to buy fertiliser, fuel, spare parts,” he told Farmers Weekly.

“If they did not sell their crops in the first half of the season it creates some problems.

“Everyone is trying to find some intermediate storage solution, and some did not sow all their fields just because at some point they understood they would not be able to sell.”

Mr Boltruchuk said complicated planning rules and legislation covering grain stores, dating to before the February invasion, had slowed progress on building better facilities in his region.

“For many small farmers it was a difficult project to make proper grain storage, and they would rather accept lower prices given by some intermediaries but get rid of their crop.”

Mr Boltruchuk said some farmers would look to store grain under any roofs they could, or even in plastic sacks.