At least 20% of harvest may not be gathered and grown in Ukraine - FAO

KYIV. May 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine may not gather and may not grow at least 20% of its harvest, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Ukraine Communication Specialist Viktoriia Mykhalchuk said.

FAO estimates that at least 20% of harvest may not be grown and may not be gathered in Ukraine, thus causing supplies to decline further and entailing serious consequences for Europe, Central Asia and other countries that depend on food shipments from Ukraine, Mykhalchuk said at a press briefing in the Ukraine Media Center in Lviv on Wednesday.

FAO has drawn up a rapid response plan, under which it needs $115 million to support around one million people until the end of 2022, she said.

UN World Food Program representative Paul Anthem, for his part, said that current food exports from Ukraine stand at only 15%-20% of what Ukraine could export.

Exports today stand at a mere 15%-20% of the amount Ukraine could export, Anthem said, adding that, as a matter of fact, there is no viable alternative to Black Sea ports, which is why the goal is to secure their reopening.

Thousands tonnes of grain are currently being stored in Ukrainian elevators in the absence of the possibility to export them, Anthem said, adding that this circumstance is already starting to cause a catastrophic famine crisis.

The events in Ukraine may lead to serious food shortages in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, he said.

These countries are facing an emergency, and people there are already on the verge of famine, Anthem said. They have already ended up in the "perfect storm" situation due to Covid-19, security and conflict, and the ongoing events in Ukraine have also added to these difficulties, he said. These countries are currently unable to import food from Ukraine due to the closure of ports, he said.

Meanwhile, FAO has distributed 862 tonnes of seed potatoes to Ukrainian households from across ten of the country's regions after February 24 so they can grow more than 10,000 tonnes of potatoes.

Some 46,000 people from 17.700 households stand to benefit from the campaign which receives financial support from the European Union and the Central Emergency Response (CERF), FAO said in a press release on its website on Wednesday.

"It's absolutely crucial right now to help farmers. The big ones but also the small ones, and those families involved in backyard farming. Agriculture is one of Ukraine's major sectors and is important for the country's food security. It is also a key source of income for the 12.6 million people who live in rural areas, who make up almost a third of the country's population," the press release quoted FAO Ukraine Designated Responsible Officer Pierre Vauthier as saying.

Each family or household - consisting on average of 2.6 people - receives a kit with 50 kilograms of seed potato with an expected yield of about 600 kilograms of potatoes. Thus, the FAO project may help Ukrainian households grow around 10,000 tonnes of potatoes.

Ukraine's potato harvest in 2021 amounted to 21.35 million tonnes, most of which (97.7%, or 20.86 million tonnes) was grown by households. Thus, the seed potato kits distributed as part of the FAO initiative may help grow 0.04% of Ukraine's overall potato output.

As reported, potatoes have already been planted in Ukraine on 1.01 million hectares, or 85.2%, of the planned 1.19-million-hectare cultivated area.