Ukraine grain exports are back to pre-war levels, says US official

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine resulted in a massive food shortage around the world due to the latter’s inability in exporting grains due to blockade of ports. Ukraine is one of the leading exporters of food grains in the world and the Russian blockage on the Black Sea led to a global crisis. The situation nowis getting better and a United States official said that Ukraineis well on course to ship almost the same quantity of grains as it used to before the invasion after reaching an agreement with Russia.

"Thanks to intensive international cooperation, Ukraine is on track to export as much as four million metric tonnes of agricultural products in August," a senior US State Department official told AFP.

The Russian invasion has dealt a massive blow to the supply chain all around the world and with no exports from Ukraine, the United Nations believed that the world could experience one of the worst food shortages in history. However, the current levels have brought respite to global concerns.

According to the US authorities, around 720,000 tonnes of grain were carried out of Ukraine in the past few weeks with the help of 33 ships. The European Union has also introduced "Solidarity Lanes" — a system of vehicles on road and water — to solidify the distribution process of the exports from Ukraine.

The US has also announced that it will be contributing $68 million to the World Food Programme which will be used to buy 150,000 metric tonNEs of Ukrainian wheat in a bid to battle the global food crisis.

(With inputs from agencies)