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How is Ukraine exporting its grain now the Black Sea deal is over? How much grain is Ukraine exporting and how is it leaving the country?
(4 months later)
Ships carrying grain are again sailing from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, despite Russia pulling out of a deal which allowed them to pass safely through the sea. Ukraine is exporting over five million tonnes of grain a month - much more than in the summer of 2023, when Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal.
They have been following a new route, around the western coast. Russia stopped giving safe passage to cargo ships going to and from Ukraine in July of that year, and as a result, the country's grain exports slumped.
What was the grain deal? How much grain is Ukraine exporting?
Ukraine is one of world's biggest suppliers of crops such as sunflower oil, barley, maize and wheat. Ukraine exported 5.2 million tonnes of grain and maize in March, 5.8 million tonnes in February and 5.3 million tonnes in January.
When Russia invaded in February 2022, its navy blockaded the country's Black Sea ports, trapping 20 million of tonnes of grain meant for export. Before Russia's invasion in 2022, the country was sending about 6.5 million tonnes abroad every month.
This caused world food prices to soar and threatened to create shortages in Middle Eastern and African countries, which usually import a lot of food from Ukraine. After Russia pulled of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (or "grain deal"), it said it would view any vessel bound for Ukraine as a potential military target.
In July 2022, Russia and Ukraine agreed a deal - brokered by Turkey and the UN - allowing cargo ships to sail along a corridor in the Black Sea. Few cargo ships dared to go to Ukrainian ports, and monthly grain exports fell to just over 2 million tonnes in July, August and September 2023.
The corridor - 310 nautical miles (357 miles; 574km) in length and three nautical miles wide - ran to and from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi. Ukraine is exporting abut five million tonnes of grain a month to 42 countries
The deal allowed the Russian navy to check ships for weapons at the Bosphorus Strait, at the entrance to the Black Sea. However, Ukraine has since established new export routes.
Almost 33 million tonnes of grain were shipped from Ukraine under the deal, and world food prices declined by roughly 20%, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Between the end of the grain deal in July 2023 and the end of February 2024, it shipped about 20 million tonnes of grain to 42 countries, according to the country's vice prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.
However, world grain prices rose again after Russia pulled out of the deal. This is despite 30 Russian attacks on Ukrainian grain ports and storage facilities since the deal ended.
Where did Ukraine's grain go? Ukraine reports deadly drone attack on port area
The UN's Joint Coordination Centre says 57% of the foodstuffs exported from Ukraine under the deal went to developing countries, and 43% to developed countries. Why do Ukrainian food exports matter?
The biggest recipients were China, Spain, Turkey and Italy. Before Russia's invasion in February 2022, Ukraine was the world's seventh largest exporter of wheat, fourth largest exporter of barley, and the biggest exporter of sunflower seeds (used for sunflower oil and feed).
But the UN says Ukraine supplied 725,000 tonnes of grain to the World Food Programme (WFP), which was sent as humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. When the war started, Ukraine's exports slumped and world prices for grain soared. This particularly affected people in the world's poorest countries.
What has happened since the grain deal ended? The more grain that Ukraine has been able to supply to global markets, the lower prices have gone.
The grain deal expired on 17 July. Foodstuffs are a major earner for Ukraine. In 2021, the year before Russia's invasion, it made $27.8bn (£23.8bn) from exports.
Since then, Russia has launched a series of air attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea ports, destroying thousands of tonnes of grain. What are Ukraine's new routes for grain exports?
Watch: Footage shows the impact of attack on Odesa grain terminals Under the grain deal, cargo ships travelled to and from Ukrainian ports along a 357-mile (574km) corridor across the Black Sea to the Bosphorus Strait.
Watch: Footage shows the impact of attack on Odesa grain terminals After that deal ended, Ukraine established a new "temporary export corridor" in August 2023, which hugs the western coastline.
The Russian defence ministry says it regards all cargo ships in the Black Sea bound for Ukraine as potential military targets. This has deterred most grain ships. This is a relatively safe route for cargo ships because the waters there are too shallow for Russian submarines to operate.
As one of the architects of the grain deal, Turkey has tried to persuade Russia to rejoin. It also passes through the territorial waters of Romania and Bulgaria, two Nato countries.
However, President Putin says that Western nations would first have to relax sanctions on Russian exports. Under the EU's "solidarity lanes" scheme, Ukraine is also sending grain by land and barge to ports on the River Danube, or to the Romanian port of Constanta, to be loaded onto cargo ships which then travel through the Black Sea.
Why did Russia refuse to renew the grain deal? More Ukrainian grain is also being exported to Europe to be sold on arrival, or to be shipped onwards from other European ports.
When the UN brokered the deal, it told Russia it would help to increase the country's exports of grain and fertilisers. How has Ukraine responded to Russia's naval blockade?
Western countries have not imposed specific sanctions on Russia's agricultural products, but Moscow says the broader restrictions which are in place have deterred shipping firms, international banks and insurers from dealing with its producers. Ukrainian armed forces have carried out repeated attacks on Russian naval ships and bases in the Black Sea, using aerial drones, sea drones and long-range missiles.
Russia asked for its state-owned agricultural bank, Rosselkhozbank, to be reconnected to the Swift fast payment system (from which all Russian banks were barred in June 2022). Ukraine's navy claims it has hit or disabled a third of all the ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet since the war began.
The UN suggested that Russia set up a subsidiary which would be allowed to use Swift - but Russia rejected the plan. This has meant Russia is now putting fewer ships near the Ukrainian coast to blockade it.
How is Ukraine exporting its grain now? Ukraine says it hit Russian landing ships in Crimea
This September, two ships have left a Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, carrying grain: Ukraine hits HQ of Russia's symbolic Black Sea navy
a small cargo vessel called Resilient Africa What problems have Ukraine's grain exports caused in neighbouring countries?
a full-size vessel called the Aroyat To help Ukraine's economy after the Russian invasion, the EU scrapped tariffs on imports from the country.
Both ships travelled around the western coast of the Black Sea - through Romanian and Bulgarian territorial waters - to be safe from Russian attack. However, countries in eastern Europe complained that this meant Ukrainian grain was flooding their markets, lowering wholesale prices and hitting the incomes of their farmers.
This route was previously used as a humanitarian corridor, to allow passage for empty ships which had been trapped in Ukraine's Black Sea ports since the start of the conflict. Some dealers had decided to sell the grain in these countries rather than ship it overseas from other European ports.
Ukraine has also been exporting an increasing amount of grain from Reni and Izmail, on the Danube river. Polish farmers have been blocking the border with Ukraine
The UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) says 65% of Ukraine's grain exports are now going from these ports. According to the EU's agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, 4.1 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain entered Poland between April 2022 and March 2023, and 3.4 million tonnes of that stayed in the country.
The grain is transported by river and canals into the Black Sea, via the Romanian seaports of Sulina and Constanta. In May 2022, the European Commission introduced a ban on Ukrainian grain sales in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, only allowing grain meant for transit to enter those countries.
Russia has repeatedly attacked Reni and Izmail with drones to try to disrupt operations. It lifted the restrictions in September 2023, saying the problem had been solved.
Ukraine has also been exporting grain to the rest of Europe by road and rail, through neighbouring countries such as Romania and Moldova. However, Poland has since imposed its own ban on Ukrainian grain imports, and Polish farmers have been blockading border crossings with Ukraine.
However, transporting grain this way is more expensive and time-consuming than doing so by sea. In March 2024, the European Commission proposed a cap on duty-free imports of some Ukrainian produce, including oats, eggs, poultry and sugar.
Ukraine's railways have a different gauge to those of EU countries, so every trainload entering the EU has to be transferred from one set of wagons to another. However it confirmed that all other Ukrainian imports into the EU - including wheat and barley - would remain free of duties until at least June 2025.
It is also proposing to increase tariffs on imports of Russian and Belorusian grain to reduce surpluses in eastern European countries.
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