Ukraine exports 1.5 million tons of grain by land monthly amid port blockade
Kyiv, Jun 20 (EFE).- War-hit Ukraine is exporting 1.5 million tons of grain by land each month, a Ukrainian foreign ministry official said on Monday.
“In recent months, we have exported an average of 1.5 million tons of grain by land – by rail and by road,” Olha Trofimtseva, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said at an online briefing on Monday.
European infrastructure and logistics were not equipped to cope with such export flow, Trofimtseva, who is also the Coordinator of the Exporters and Investors Council, said according to the Ukrinform news agency.
She praised efforts by Poland, Germany and other countries to build border transit centers and speed up the passage of trains with Ukrainian grains between countries to ports.
“We have recently heard President (Joe) Biden saying that the United States will also build temporary grain storage facilities in Poland near the Ukrainian border to relieve Ukrainian grain storage facilities before the 2022 harvest,” she said.
The Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports has prevented some seven million tons of wheat, 14 million tons of corn, three million tons of sunflower oil and another three million tons of sunflower meal from reaching the global market, triggering a record hike in grain prices. EFE
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