Race to salvage Ukraine wheat stocks trapped by Kyiv fighting
Fears of low stocks in Middle East, with 20 million tonnes of grain trapped in warehouses by invasion Millions of tonnes of Ukraine wheat desperately needed in the Middle East are going to waste in warehouses caught up in the fighting around Kyiv, The National can report. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made it a key national priority that a seeding programme will start in the coming days to ensure grain is growing despite the Russian invasion . Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said the consequence of President Vladimir Putin’s “aggression” would extend far beyond Ukraine, which was the “granary of the world” providing half of the World Food Programme’s wheat. “As humanitarian needs are already at an all-time high, the Kremlin-made war threatens food security across the world,” she tweeted on Tuesday. Global stocks are 31 per cent below the five-year average due to a poor harvest and the pandemic. Prices that were already very high have now increased a fu...