UAC News

Ukrainian agricultural companies receive licences for demining land for growing products. General Director of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, Pavlo Koval, announced this on May 12 during a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center Odesa.

Ukraine hopes to sell stockpiled grain across its border with the European Union (EU) after agricultural exports fell by a third in April and before the start of the new harvest, while the route from Black Sea ports remains blocked by Russia.

The volume of grain exports from Ukraine decreased from 6.7 million tons in March to 5.3 million tons in April, the State Customs Service reports.

The UN-backed grain corridor is the main exit route for Ukrainian agricultural exports, so the decision by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria to block them too will cause considerable damage to Ukrainian farmers and a sector hard hit by the war.

Kyiv's hope is that a negotiated solution will be found on a multilateral scale between Ukraine, the national governments involved and the European Commission (EC), whose decision to lift tariffs on its products triggered a reaction from the four eastern countries.

After a year of cooperation with the UN World Food Programme (UN WFP), Astarta has become one of its key food suppliers for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.