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The European Commission has offered to help Ukraine get its
wheat and other grain exports around a Russian blockade of the Black Sea ports
by rail, road and river, preventing these vital supplies from reaching
different parts of the world at risk of food insecurity.
The European Union's executive branch said the plan was
aimed at establishing alternative routes and reducing traffic congestion across
the border that would facilitate humanitarian aid and other supplies to
war-torn countries.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has provoked disruptions in
global food supplies, with both countries two of the world's biggest exporters
of wheat, barley, and sunflower oil. The blockade of Ukrainian ports has been
particularly harmful, having accounted for 90% of grain and oilseed exports
before the war, the commission said.
"Twenty million tons of grains have to leave Ukraine in
less than three months using the EU infrastructure," said Adina Valean, EU
commissioner for transport. "This is a gigantesque challenge, so it is
essential to coordinate and optimize the logistic chains, put in place new
routes, and avoid, as much as possible, the bottlenecks."
The potential loss of affordable grain supplies that Africa,
the Middle East, and parts of Asia rely on has raised the risk of global food
shortages and political instability in countries where many people already were
not getting enough to eat. The disruptions from the war have further raised
food prices, with the high cost of fertilizers – of which Russia is a top
exporter – and cooking oils further squeezing the global food chain.
The head of the European Investment Bank said this week that
Ukraine is "sitting on 8 billion euros worth of wheat" it cannot
export.
In addition to the port blockade, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry
has accused Russia of stealing grain and trying to sell some on global markets.
It cited official estimates indicating that Russia already may have stolen
400,000 to 500,000 metric tons of grain that cost over $100 million. It
asserted that "practically all ships leaving Sevastopol with a load of
grain are carrying the grain stolen from Ukraine," referring to a major
port on the Black Sea.
To get Ukraine's food supplies to the world, Europe is
looking to increase shipments by railroads and trucks. Trains have started
carrying loads of grain to Austria and Germany via other EU countries but
amount to only a fraction of the Black Sea port capacity.
A key challenge is the diverging rail gauge widths between
Ukraine and EU countries. Since Ukrainian railroad cars do not fit with most of
the EU network, goods need to be transferred to trucks or other rail cars
adapted to the system.
The EU says the average wait time for the thousands of rail
cars at Ukraine's border with the 27-nation bloc is 16 days, reaching up to 30
days in some places.
To address this congestion, the commission said the most
urgent priority is to ensure additional transport vehicles are available to get
the grain to EU ports. It said grain-hopper trailers, cargo containers, and
barges and vessels "are urgently needed."
With nonmilitary flights grounded in Ukraine, the commission
said the new supply routes should be organized mainly via land and river
transport, using for instance Ukraine's ports on the Danube River.
The commission urged member nations to accelerate procedures
at border crossing points and increase capacity on EU soil for the temporary
storage of Ukrainian exports.
"In the medium to long term, the commission will also
work on increasing the infrastructure capacity of new export corridors and on
establishing new infrastructure connections," it said.
The commission's proposals are nonbinding and mostly
intended to facilitate coordination between EU countries, transport operators,
and equipment suppliers.
Ukraine's grain harvest this year will be much smaller than
last year's as half of wheat cultivation land for winter is located in areas of
intense fighting or are occupied by the Russian military, Ukrainian Agriculture
Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Friday.
"This year's harvest will be much smaller than last
year's, but still very large quantities are involved," Solskyi said in
Stuttgart ahead of a meeting with the agriculture ministers of the Group of
Seven industrialized nations.
"We will not be able to avoid the fact that we will
have large losses with wheat," he added, according to his official
translator. Find more.
|Source: Online/SZK
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