Ukraine proposes to create grain hubs in African ports
Ukraine can establish hubs for millions of tonnes of grain per year in especially sensitive areas, including African ports, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Sustainable Development Goals Summit at the UN on Tuesday.
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Ukraine has already started negotiations on creating grain hubs, which will help prevent any shocks to the global food market, Mr Zelenskyy said.
He stressed that Ukraine will never give up its role as a guarantor of global food security.
"Nobody expected from us that we could press the Russian fleet out of our Black Sea waters, providing more room for the Black Sea Grain Initiative as well as humanitarian initiative, Grain from Ukraine. And the results are truly remarkable," he added.
Ukraine food exports have reached the shores of Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Somalia, Tunisia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Iraq, Oman, Pakistan, Türkiye, Yemen, and others.
"This was a total of 32 million tons of food. This is 32 million tons less chaos," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine was one of the leading exporters of grain and other agricultural products globally, mostly through the Black Sea.
It has struggled to move its grain out since Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, effectively cutting off the maritime export route.