Food planting in Ukraine is down between 25-30 per cent as the country struggles to export already harvested produce.
Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to cause havoc for the country’s vital agricultural sector, with crop sowing falling by 25-30 per cent thanks to the ongoing conflict.
The war-torn country is also struggling to export crops that have already been harvested, an issue that has already prompted fears of famine across the world due to the nation traditionally being responsible for a major share of the world’s wheat trade.
According to a report by Reuters, the country only managed to export around one million tons of grain in April, a small figure compared to the 4-5 million tons per month the country usually ships out.
By contrast, 12 million tons of surplus grain remain in the country, with it now being feared that the stuck produce will leave no room in storage for when the next harvest comes.
The lack of exports from Ukraine have prompted fears that many vulnerable people worldwide will be thrust into hunger, with some officials accusing Russia of deliberately preventing produce from leaving the country in the hopes of manufacturing a food crisis that will inevitably become a migrant crisis.
The Ukrainian Agriculture Minister, Mykola Solskyi, is one of the latest to repeat accusations that Russia is up to no good, saying that the country has been actively looking to steal grain produced by his nation.
“Work is under way so that this stolen grain can be quickly seized,” Solskyi emphasised, though Reuters reported that the minister gave no details as to how such a retrieval could happen.
Regardless of how and why grain is not leaving the country, starvation is on the cards for many as a result of spiralling prices caused by a shortage of grain and other Ukrainian and Russian exports, with the head of the World Food Programme David Beasley warning that should European nations not step in, a major migrant crisis could again be on the cards.
“Failure to provide this year a few extra billion dollars [for feeding the vulnerable] means you’re going to have famine, destabilization, and mass migration,” the former Republican Governor of South Carolina said.
“If we neglect northern Africa, northern Africa’s coming to Europe,” he continued. “If we neglect the Middle East, [the] Middle East is coming to Europe.”
“If you think we’ve got Hell on earth now, you just get ready,” the former US politician also reportedly said.