This was announced by the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, at a closed meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels last week, writes Agrarheute .
According to him, the cause of this situation was hostilities, mined fields, lack of fuel or workers. In addition, high costs and Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure make it impossible to dry the harvested crop.
The Commissioner for Agriculture also noted that Ukraine will significantly reduce the harvest next year. Many farmers were hesitant to plant winter crops because of low domestic prices, high transportation costs, and war damage.
Another problem is the sharp rise in fuel and fertilizer prices. Currently, many Ukrainian farmers simply lack the necessary financial resources for investments in a new cycle of production.
Janusz Wojciechowski said these factors will affect grain availability worldwide over the next two years.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, as of December 16, agricultural producers threshed corn for grain on an area of 2.9 million hectares, which is 70% of the plan. 18.4 million tons were threshed with a yield of 62.7 t/ha.