Meanwhile, it was claimed that the troops of the Russian army stole a large amount of grain from Ukraine. It is estimated that wheat production in Ukraine, one of the world’s leading wheat exporters, will fall dramatically this year due to the war. French data analysis firm Kayrros estimated that this decline would be 35 percent compared to last year, in an analysis based on satellite photos of the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Noting that there is a shortage of fuel and personnel in agriculture, Kayrros estimated that 21 million tons of wheat will be produced in Ukraine this year. It has been noted that this number is 12 million tons less than in 2021 and is 23 percent lower than the average of the last five years.
Kayrros explained that the production may be less than expected due to the ongoing war and the intensification of conflicts in the eastern regions of the country, which have a significant share in wheat production. It was pointed out that even in the case of the harvest, the processing and transportation of the product is very difficult due to the damage to the infrastructure and the Russian army blocked the Odessa Port.
NASA photographs that Kayrros evaluated show the condition of the fields between April 14-22. The Ukrainian government, on the other hand, had predicted that the country’s wheat production would decrease by half.
Ukraine, which has fertile lands, is described as the granary of Europe. Ukraine, which was the world’s fourth largest importer of corn before the war, was on its way to becoming the world’s third largest importer of wheat. Ukraine carries out 12 percent of wheat imports all over the world.
700 thousand tons of grain lost
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced that 700 thousand tons of grains were also lost in Ukraine. Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of FAO Market and Trade, said that they estimate that Russian troops seized the grain and sent it to their home countries.
“There is anecdotal evidence that (Russian armed forces) stole grain and sent it to Russia in trucks,” Schmidhuber said in a statement to the press in Geneva. Schmidhuber stated that there are videos on social media that point to theft and that they consider the images there to be real.
AFP,dpa / EC,ET