UN: millions of tons of grain blocked in Ukraine

Millions of tons of food in Ukraine are currently unusable. “Currently, nearly 4.5 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukrainian ports and on ships and cannot be used,” said the director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Germany, Martin Frick. Ports and sea routes have been blocked as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Until the beginning of the war, Ukraine was one of the world’s major producers of wheat and a major producer of maize. For example, according to UN figures, more than 30 million tons of maize and nearly 25 million tons of wheat were harvested in the country in 2020. Many countries, for example in North Africa, depend on cheap wheat from Ukraine. The grain is also crucial to global food aid. “Food from Ukraine is urgently needed worldwide,” said Frick.

According to the WFP, the organization has provided food aid to about 2.5 million Ukrainians since the war started on February 24. According to Frick, there is a double challenge: “Food must reach the trapped and needy people in Ukraine, but also from the region into the world to avert a global food crisis,” said the WFP director.

The WFP needs humanitarian access, both to people and ports, so that food exports can be restarted. “Hunger should not be a weapon, both militarily and economically.”