By KYIV. Jan 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The pace of Ukrainian agricultural exports by sea dropped by 20% in January 2024 due to the public holidays and the crisis in the Red Sea, Agrarian Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Mykola Solsky has said.
“The pace has slightly decreased. We explain this by the objective reasons: these are coincidences due to New Year. […] The second thing is the problems in the Read Sea,” he said on the national telethon on Thursday.
According to Solsky, part of Ukrainian agricultural exports used to head through the Red Sea to Asia, China, other countries, and East Africa.
“The movement of ships significantly slowed down there and this has become tangible,” the minister said, adding that the volume of agricultural products exiting the ports dropped by 20%.
“This amount is not significant, but still large,” he said.
Commenting on the troubles with the exports of Ukrainian agricultural products across the Romanian border, the minister said the Government of Romania is holding a constructive dialogue with the local protesting farmers.
“Several associations are having questions there. They have 14 demands. Almost all of them are connected with the domestic market and the compensation system, changing various inspection procedures, subsidies and their distribution, fuel prices and so on. There is one demand which is indirectly related to Ukraine – these are additional compensations to the farmers for the previous year. It is connected with the situation in Ukraine. Therefore, the word ‘Ukraine’ sounded in the demands,” he said.
According to Solsky, the Romanian government and farmers have almost reached agreements on all of the items.
The minister also announced a meeting with his Romanian counterpart on Friday, during which he would be updated on the situation.
