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Agriculture has suffered losses of over $25 billion since the war began, Ukrainian grain trader association UGA estimates. Ukraine's grain exports so far in the 2023/24 season that started in July are running 28% below the year-earlier volume, according to agriculture ministry data. A new Black Sea shipping channel may offer a lifeline, like for Ukraine's depleted steel industry. An additional 943,000 tons should leave from Black Sea ports and 464,000 tons from the Danube by the month-end. A Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa on Nov. 21 added to a series of attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea and Danube grain ports.

Persons: Stringer, Jean, Francois Lepy, Dmitry Skornyakov, Denys Marchuk, Skornyakov, Yuriy Stelmakh, Roman Gorobets, Soliman, Scott Wellcome, Pavel Polityuk, Gus Trompiz, Nigel Hunt, David Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Agriculture, UGA, Spike, Agrarian Council, FE ASTRA, Kremlin, Mediterranean, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia region, PARIS, Russia, UN, Geneva, Black, Russian, Odesa, Romania's Constanta, Brazil, Egypt, GoodMills, Kyiv, Paris, London

☆ Ukraine may use new Black Sea route for grain shipments - producers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsKYIV, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Ukraine is considering using its newly-tested wartime Black Sea export corridor for grain shipments after other cargo ships follow the first successful evacuation of a vessel on the route last week, a senior agricultural official said on Monday. Russia has blockaded Ukrainian ports since it invaded its neighbour in Feb. 2022 and threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets after pulling out of a U.N.-backed safe passage deal last month. A Hong Kong-flagged container ship stuck in Odesa port since the invasion travelled the route last week without being fired upon. The Financial Times said Kyiv was finalising a scheme with global insurers to cover grain ships travelling to and from its Black Sea ports, citing Ukraine's Deputy Economy Minister Oleksandr Gryban. To attract ship owners to Ukrainian ports which have come under fire from Russian forces, Marchuk said Ukraine had already allocated 20 billion hryvnias ($547 million) for ship insurance.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Denys Marchuk, Oleksandr Gryban, Marchuk, Pavel Polityuk, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Agrarian Council, Financial Times, Kyiv, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Ukrainian, Romania, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Odesa, Mykolaiv

If the Black Sea is closed, the Danube is one of the main routes which we will need to use," he told Reuters by phone. Police said Danube grain warehouses had been hit on Monday in a drone attack along with tanks for storing other cargo. Since Monday's air strikes, the Danube channel has seen shipping disruptions, although it was unclear why there was a slowdown of vessel traffic. INSURANCE RATES RISEInsurance sources have said war risk cover for Ukraine's ports that was part of the defunct Black Sea grain deal had been suspended with some insurance providers reviewing provisions for Danube ports. The attack on the Danube infrastructure followed a week of Russian strikes that hit grain-related infrastructure at Odesa's main ports.

Persons: Russia's, Denys Marchuk, Carlos Mera, Mera, Marchuk, Danilov, Olena Harmash, Sybille de La, Tom Balmforth, William Maclean Organizations: Ukrainian Agrarian, Reuters, Police, EU, Romania, Agri Commodities Markets Research, Rabobank, Insurance, Kyiv, Russia, CMA CGM, National Security, Defence Council, Thomson Locations: KYIV, Moscow, Odesa, Reni, NATO, Russia, Izmail, Ukraine, China, Chornomorsk, Ukrainian, Italy, Kyiv, Western, Paris

☆ Ukraine's farmers fear the worst after grain deal collapses
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Of the 60,000 tons of produce grown on Huizinga's land last year, 50,000 tons was sent abroad through the grain deal. In total, Ukraine has been able to export 33 million tons of agricultural products through the deal. Some of Ukraine's western neighbours have restricted imports of Ukrainian grain under pressure from their farmers, who said they were suffering from the added competition. Ukraine expects to harvest 44 million tons of grain this year, down from a record 86 million-ton harvest in 2021. Both Marchuk and Huizinga believe grain shipments should continue through the Black Sea even without Russia's participation in the deal.

Persons: Artem Nechai, Kees Huizinga, Huizinga, Denys Marchuk, Max Hunder, Timothy Heritage, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: REUTERS, Agricultural, Reuters, United, Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Cherkasy region, Russia, Netherlands, Cherkasy, Eastern, United Nations, Turkey, Russian, Groningen, Romania, Izmail

☆ Traitor next door? Fear stalks Kherson after Russian occupation ends
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Elizabeth Piper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Nonetheless, her garden walls in the Ukrainian city of Kherson are covered with graffiti marking her out as a Russian collaborator. Fear and suspicion stalk the streets of Kherson, a southern port that was occupied by Russian troops for over eight months before they were driven out by Ukrainian forces in November. More than 5,300 collaboration cases have been registered across the country, according to the prosecutor general's website. Cases of collaboration can point to the tough choices people have to make when trying to survive under occupation. He left the business to his workers, who had to register with the Russians and take Russian passports, and fears they could be prosecuted once the occupation ends.

[1/5] An agricultural worker operates a tractor with a tiller in a field near the village Kyshchentsi, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Cherkasy region, Ukraine May 1, 2023. Around 40 of his 350 workers have signed up to fight in the war, and the replacements he has found lack their experience. Huizinga fears this could mean a fall in grain and milk yields, and with them a drop in his income. His farm, in a village in the rolling hills and green flat plains of the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine, is not the only one losing valued farmhands to the war. Marchuk said farmers were prioritising some employees, bringing in more women workers, recruiting those people displaced by the war and by retraining other workers.

☆ Ukraine farmers say protests in EU over Ukrainian grain are political
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Pavel Polityuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Inquam Photos/George Calin via REUTERSKYIV, April 12 (Reuters) - Protests by European farmers are political and shipments of Ukrainian grain are not reducing the profitability of their business, Ukrainian food producers' union UAC said on Wednesday. Poland last week said it would temporarily halt Ukrainian grain imports after farmers' protests led Poland's agriculture minister to resign, but transit would still be allowed. "The political nature of the European farmers' strikes is obvious. "However, certain forces need to demonstrate that this is due to an oversupply of Ukrainian grain," he said, noting that the country faced elections later this year. Ukrainian officials this month said, however, the country may export a further 15.6 million tonnes of grain in the April-to-June quarter, which would lift this season's exports to nearly 53 million tonnes.

[1/5] Grain farmer Oleksandr Klepach points at trenches in his field, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Snihurivka, southeast Ukraine, February 20, 2023. Agricultural companies, which plant most of Ukraine's fields, are short 40 billion hryvnia ($1.08 billion) to carry out spring work, the Agrarian Council said. Grains have traditionally dominated Ukraine's fields, but lower-cost and higher-priced oilseeds are gaining popularity during war. Ukraine was the world's fourth-largest corn exporter before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 and the biggest sunflower oil exporter. Companies lacking demining certification are charging farmers up to $3,000 per hectare to clear fields, Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday.

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