Zhelensky warns that the amount of grain banned in Ukraine will triple in the “autumn”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky warned on Monday that the volume of grain frozen in Ukraine for export would triple by “fall” to 75 million tons.

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“Currently, 20 to 25 million tons of grain are blocked, and this number is likely to increase to 70-75 million tons this fall,” the Ukrainian president, who is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, told reporters. Russian invasion.

“We need maritime corridors, we are discussing this with Turkey and the United Kingdom,” the Ukrainian president said, adding that exports by sea allow 10 million tonnes a month.

He also said that Ukraine was in talks with Poland and the Baltic countries to export small quantities of grain by rail.

“We have to export the grain. I think we will do that,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week promised that “there is no problem in exporting grain from Ukraine,” citing ways for Russia to control Ukrainian ports and other exports via Central or Eastern Europe.

Ukraine, which accuses Russia of blocking its ports, rejects these solutions.

“Putin can not be trusted,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba wrote on Twitter on Monday in response to Moscow’s promises not to attack the port of Odessa.

Russia-Ukraine conflict The two grain powers have been at loggerheads with each other since February 24 – Russia and Ukraine together account for 30% of world wheat exports. This caused a spike in the prices of grains and oils, which were higher than those reached during the 2011 Arab Spring and the 2008 “food riots”.

Shortly before the war Ukraine was on track to become the world’s third largest wheat exporter and accounted for only half of the world’s trade in sunflower seeds and oil.

The UN fears it is a “hurricane of famine,” with more than half of wheat imported mainly from African countries, such as Ukraine or Russia.

For the 2021/22 season, Ukraine will export 20 million tons of wheat and 27.5 million tons of corn, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s WASDE (Global Organic Supply and Demand Estimates) report.