The following is the Oct. 15, 2024 edition of our Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here. Ukraine is set to face its toughest winter since the start of the invasion as Russia eyes cutting
Russia has stolen more than 180,000 tons of Ukrainian grain through the port of the occupied city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast alone, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Oct. 8.
Romania's Foreign Ministry said on Sept. 13 that Russia's strike against a cargo ship loaded with Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea is an "unprecedented escalation" of Moscow's war.
The Russian-installed head of occupied Kherson, Volodymyr Saldo, was charged in absentia on Aug. 15 on charges related to seizing and relocating over 2,800 tons of Ukrainian grain, the Prosecutor General's office announced.
Over 11 months, the Ukrainian maritime corridor transported 60 million tons of cargo, primarily from the Greater Odesa ports, according to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA).
The ship, sailing under a flag of an unspecified central African country, "carried out Russia's orders" and has transported "looted agricultural products" from Sevastopol to the Middle East in 2023-2024, the SBU said.
Ukraine plans to expand its Grain From Ukraine humanitarian program to further supply food to Africa, the Caribbean, and other regions, according to Andriy Yermak, head of the President's Office.
The authors linked this development to a drop in production and to Russia's disruption of Black Sea shipping lanes, which have traditionally been Ukraine's key export routes.
The Hungarian government isn't planning on lifting its ban on Ukrainian grain imports, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on June 6 while visiting St. Petersburg, Russia, for the International Economic Forum, Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
More than $250 million will be allocated to rebuild and expand Ukraine's agricultural sector under the new USAID Harvest program, Deputy Agricultural Minister Denys Bashlyk said on May 3.
The talks on creating a licensing system for trading Ukrainian goods have progressed and may be completed already this week, Poland's Economic Development and Technology Minister Krzysztof Hetman said in a comment for Radio Lublin published on March 25.
The measure would impose a 95 euro ($103) per ton on corn and wheat, as opposed to zero tariffs imposed today, Business Insider reported. Other products, namely oilseeds, would be subject to an "ad valorem duty" of 50%.
Czechia is planning to propose a ban on grain imports from Russia and Belarus into European Union countries at next week's European Council meeting, Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny said on March 17.
European Commission will present a proposal next week on restricting Russian and Belarusian agricultural imports, Polish news outlet RMF24 reported on March 13, citing an anonymous EU diplomat.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk failed to reach an agreement with Polish farmers to end protests against Ukrainian agricultural imports during a meeting on March 9, Polskie Radio reported.
The Latvian government on March 5 approved a list of Russian and Belarusian agricultural and food products that will be banned from importing into the country since March 8.
"These are impressive figures, with over 3 million tons of Russian grain having passed through Latvia and Lithuania combined in 2023," said Ausrys Macijauskas, the head of the Lithuania Association of Grain Growers.
The crops, en route to the port of Gdansk and then to other countries, were dumped at a Polish railway station near Bydgoszcz, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Feb. 25.
Grain has been dumped from Ukrainian trains at the Polish border on at least two other occasions earlier in February, sparking condemnations in Ukraine.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics argued that Russian grain imports support the Russian economy and, therefore, its army, and what is labeled as Russian grain may, in fact, be Ukrainian grain stolen from Russian-occupied territories.
"If we decide not to let buses in, it will be very bad. But perhaps then our authorities will finally look for substantive solutions," said Roman Kondrow, the leader of an organization of Polish farmers involved in the protest.
According to the Infrastructure Ministry, the protesters spilled about four metric tons of grain from two grain freight cars waiting to be reloaded onto the narrow gauge. These agricultural products were in transit to Germany.
Polish farmers have briefly blocked a railway track at the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing with Ukraine, dumping grain from standing freight cars, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on Feb. 20.
Protesters will obstruct a highway in Prague on Feb. 19 to bring attention to the demands of Czech farmers, who say EU policies and imports from Ukraine are hurting the agriculture sector.
Polish farmers have again taken to the border with neighboring Ukraine in their new month-long strike against EU policies and unfair competition from abroad. The Solidarity trade union announced on Feb. 9 that it would begin blocking roads and border crossings with Ukraine until March 10. The group then announced
"We understand when Polish farmers defend their interests in a civilized way. But this case of destruction of Ukrainian wheat has nothing to do with peaceful protests either from a legal or a moral point of view," the Agriculture Ministry said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that economic disputes between Poland and Ukraine may cause "sudden emergence of anti-Ukrainian sentiments," the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported on Feb. 11.
The Sky Gate bulk carrier is shipping 25,000 metric tons of wheat to Nigeria.
Egypt booked around 480,000 metric tons of Russian wheat, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 10 citing anonymous traders.
Kyiv may be gearing up for a legal battle with three of its neighbors as it now fights to free its grain on its western borders. In defiance of the European Commission’s Sept. 15 decision to lift an embargo on the domestic sale of Ukrainian agricultural products in five
The program was symbolically launched on the anniversary of the Holodomor, the articifical famine organized by the Soviet authorities, which killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932-1933. Ukraine considers Holodomor an act of genocide of Ukrainians, and has been fighting for it to be recognized as such globally.
On Nov. 2, Russia announced it would continue its participation in the deal that allows grain shipments from Ukraine via the Black Sea, ending several days of turmoil when the vital deal was hanging by a thread. The grain exports crisis started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which
