One of my “go to” resources for anything agricultural is the University of Illinois — Urbana. In their Farm Policy News today, the headline here says it all:
Crimea Food Exports Soar, Indicating That Stolen Ukrainian Grain Likely Moving on to Export Markets
…
The port of Sevastopol shipped about 462,200 tons of agricultural goods such as grains, oilseeds, vegetable oils, pulses and proteins since the beginning of March, according to Geneva-based researcher AgFlow, which compiles and cross-references data based on inspection reports, bills of lading, port lineups and AIS from private sources. Last year, the port shipped about 8,000 tons.”
The article notes that the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia (didn’t know that one) are the heart of Ukraine agriculture and Russia occupies about 60% of that region.
It looks like everyone is getting notice that the Russians have stolen grain to sell. Egypt just launched a tender for wheat.
This may underline why Ukraine is now working hard to negotiate an agreement with Russia to allow exports of wheat from Ukraine wheat before the Russian stolen grain cuts the market price even more — the price has already dropped from record prices of $13 a bushel at the time of the Russian invasion to settle under $8 a bushel last week.
Check out the article — it also tracks climate impacts in growing regions around Europe.
