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The goal of Ukraine to provide grain to more than 5 million people in needy countries by the end of spring is absolutely real and absolutely achievable. Roman Neyter, an analyst at the Center for Food and Land Use Studies of the Kyiv School of Economics, expressed this opinion today, January 29, on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel.
This is how he commented on the statement of the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (OPU) Andriy Yermak on the supply of grain with the support of the world community as part of the Grain from Ukraine food program to help the countries of the global south overcome hunger amid the global food crisis. Since the start of the program in November 2022, more than 30 countries have joined it – EU countries, Qatar, Turkey, Japan, Norway, Korea and others.
“This goal is absolutely real, absolutely feasible. It must be understood that shortly before the invasion, my colleagues and I analyzed how many people Ukraine already provides with food. And we have a figure close to 400 million people, those who rely on calories obtained from Ukrainian agricultural products. In this context, 5 million does not look so ambitious anymore. There is a question not only in the physical delivery of food, but also the question of payments – who will pay for it? Relatively speaking, if I understand correctly, donors have already been found and will be found who will sponsor the shipment of this food to Africa. And I don’t see anything impossible here. The last I heard is that we have already sent more than 110,000 tons of food. This is already a good enough worthy result,” Neuter said.
According to the analyst, in the countries where the grain is sent, there is a very acute situation with malnutrition and food security.
“If we look at the same Yemen, there is what I saw, more than a million pregnant and breastfeeding women who are suffering from malnutrition. That is, these are absolutely frightening numbers. And we are talking about conditional Somalia, the numbers that I saw, more than a million people became displaced in search of food. In general, there are significant problems with food security in this region and their solution is both of a humanitarian nature, and there are potential other planes, to the point that there is less chance that there will be an influx of people caused by acute famine,” said Roman Neiter.
It should be noted that Ukraine seeks to ensure food security for itself and states around the world. Despite the war, Ukrainian farmers maintain their positions in the ranking of world agricultural exporters. Ukraine remains in the top five largest suppliers of agricultural products – in 2022 the country exported more than 40 million tons of grain and provided hundreds of millions of people around the world with food.
