What is the situation with the blocked seaports of Ukraine; what will our state do if it cannot sell grain abroad; what is the situation with the prices for food products in Ukraine - Taras Vysotskyy, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, commented on the aforesaid topics on the air of the national marathon on the Rada TV channel.
As for the situation with the transportation of grain by sea, Taras Vysotskyy stressed, the leadership of our country continues to work together with international partners (the UN) in this direction.
"The idea itself is important and necessary, without it we will not be able to realize all our export potential. And, of course, this requires several factors: sufficient amount of anti-ship weapons, and guaranteed military support. Therefore, work prolongs in this direction. We can announce when the final details will be agreed upon with Ukraine," he said.
As for how quickly the coasts can be demined, the First Deputy Minister explained that there are a number of factors that currently do not allow us to assess how quickly this can happen. "It will depend on the stage of the war. Our victory is a completely different speed. If the fighting continues, these are other risks. Therefore, everything will vary depending on external factors. There are mechanisms of quite fast demining, and vice versa. That is why it is difficult to delineate the horizon," he stressed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is already preparing additional storage facilities so that in the absence of exports through ports, it would be possible to store both last year's balances and the new harvest, which will be actively harvested in a month, Vysotskyy added.
"Given last year's transitional balances and this year's yield forecast, there could be a deficit of 10-15 million tons. Therefore, now, as Plan B for grain storage, in case of impossibility of fast export, mobile elevator cans and hoses are imported in order to have in reserve potential equipment for storage of these additional tons," he said.
In total, Ukraine has thousands of elevator capacities, and they are distributed throughout Ukraine’s territory.
"As for prices for agricultural products, it is an element of seasonality. If we talk about the group of gardening - vegetables, fruits, berries - then we are approaching the season of slightly lower prices. Harvest is approaching. At least until the end of October, there are no prerequisites for rising prices. Similarly, during this period, the milk yield of cows also increase and dairy products become slightly cheaper. Therefore, if there are no macro-challenges, such as further increases in fuel prices or other factors that may affect the price, purely from the point of view of the agricultural cycle, there are no prerequisites for raising prices," Taras Vysotsky commented on the food price situation in Ukraine.
