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 losses and damages to Ukraine's agricultural sector as a result of Russia's full-scale war amounted to over $80 billion as of late February, according to the estimations of the Kyiv School of Economics and the World Bank.
The program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will support small grain and oilseed producers to expand their export markets, Bashlyk said.
USAID Harvest aims to increase agricultural exports by $1.5 billion and attract an additional $500 million in private investment, USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman said.
The agency is shifting its focus to Ukraine's agriculture future needs and will support the diversification of its exports and the production of higher value added products, she added.
Ukraine exported more than 13 million tons of products totalling $3.3 billion in April, higher than the volumes for February 2022 before the start of the full-scale invasion, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
The growth was reportedly driven by the opening of an alternative sea corridor, as well as a ship insurance programs and the expansion of Solidarity Lanes.
As Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2023, Kyiv opened a new corridor the following month. Initially envisioned as a humanitarian corridor to allow the departure of ships stranded there since the start of the full-scale war, it has since grown into a full-blown trade route.
Liliane Bivings
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