Millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine, says German UN official

theguardian.com:

The director of the United Nations World Food Programme in Germany has warned that millions of tonnes of grain is stuck in Ukraine due to sea ports being blocked by Russian military action.

Martin Frick said about 4.5 million tonnes of grain in containers at Ukrainian ports could not be shifted due to unsafe or occupied sea routes, some of which had been mined, as well as inaccessible ports.

“None of the grain can be used right now. It is just sitting there,” Frick told the German news agency dpa.

Ukraine is one of the world’s leading producers of wheat as well as being a major corn producer. About 30m tonnes of corn and about 25m tonnes of wheat were harvested in the country in 2020, according to the UN. Many countries in north Africa in particular are dependent for their basic food provision on low-cost wheat from Ukraine.

“The world urgently needs these items of food from Ukraine,” Frick said.

Despite the abundance of crops still available in Ukraine, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that since the start of the invasion on 24 February, it had had to provide 2.5 million Ukrainians with food support – the majority of them in Ukraine, as well as several hundred thousand in neighbouring Moldova.

“Foodstuffs have to reach those in Ukraine who are trapped and in need. But at the same time there is the need to provide other parts of the world with foodstuffs they are expecting from Ukraine, in order to alleviate a global food crisis,” Frick said.

Access to the ports for both incoming and outgoing goods was blocked, he said. He added that he feared food supplies were being used as a weapon in the conflict. “Hunger must not be used as a weapon, neither from a military, nor from an economic standpoint,” he said.

The German