US Ambassador to Ukraine visits AGRI-Ukraine transshipment co-investment sites: On April 26, Ambassador Bridget Brink, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Kubrakov, and USAID/Ukraine Mission Director Jim Hope visited Ukraine’s Izmail and Reni ports, which provide access to Romanian Black Sea ports via the Danube. These ports provide a critical alternate trade route but must expand capacity to handle increased demand, especially for grain and oilseed. The group met with Nibulon and Kernel, which are co-investing in upgrades with USAID under AGRI-Ukraine’s Economic Resilience Activity. Nibulon and Kernel are moving forward on their investments and expressed appreciation for USAID’s partnership.
European Commission (EC) reaches an agreement with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania on Ukrainian agricultural imports. Concerns about Ukrainian imports creating a glut and pushing prices down for farmers led Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia to ban imports other than transit shipments, which the EC strongly criticized. On April 28, after talks with the four countries and Romania, the countries agreed to drop any unilateral import bans while the EC agreed to offer $110 million to compensate farmers affected by Ukraine’s imports, allow “exceptional safeguard measures” for wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seed while investigating such measures for sunflower oil, and facilitate exports to third countries via solidarity lanes.
Russia has steadfastly said it will not continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative past May 18, unless its demands to facilitate its own food and fertilizer imports are met, including resuming operation of its Odesa pipeline, reconnecting to the SWIFT banking system, and lifting restrictions on insurance and port access. Russia said it would not allow ship registrations for vessels that will not complete their participation in the initiative by May 18 and would pull out of the deal if the G7 instituted a ban on exports to Russia. Russian inspectors also refused to agree on vessel movements for April 26, so no vessels left ports that day, and refused to allow inspections on April 11 and April 18. The G7 released a statement calling for the deal’s “extension, full implementation and expansion” and condemning Russia’s efforts to stymie it. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and UN Secretary-General António Guterres met on April 27, with the Initiative among their topics of discussion.
