United States Ambassador to the United Nations visits Ukraine On November 8, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, visited Ukraine, including sites highlighting the importance of Ukraine’s Black Sea exports to global food security. AGRI-Ukraine implementing activity,Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities (AGRO), welcomed the ambassador at KyivMlyn, a storage and milling facility in Kyiv where the Ambassador observed grain loading and milling and the control and management systems.“KyivMlyn did not stop working even in the beginning of the war, when fighting raged around Kyiv,” said KyivMlyn’s commercial director, Kostiantyn Ignatenko. However, Ukraine’s overall processing has dropped 20 to 30 percent.
Annually, milling enterprises produce more than 1.4 million metric tons (MT) of flour, much of which was exported. In KyivMlyn’s case, most of their exports went mainly to Northern Africa. Russia’s war sharply reduced the amount of wheat that flour and bread importing countries can access, creating economic uncertainty for Ukraine’s farmers and production challenges elsewhere. For example, on the Ambassador’s recent trip to Uganda, she saw local millers suffering from a lack of wheat availability. Reduced exports have constrained Ukrainian farmers’ incomes, leaving them without sufficient resources to plant for the next season.AGRI-Ukraine is helping farmers access financing and providing inputs to help farmers overcome these challenges.Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield saw the critical role that AGRI-Ukraine is playing in Ukraine at a time of increased concern about Russia’s commitment to the grain deal.
