On the same day Russia aimed a “retribution” attack on the port of Odesa, USAID administrator Samantha Power announced an additional $250 million to support Ukraine’s war-battered agricultural sector on Tuesday. The money, put into the U.S.-created Agriculture Resilience Initiative-Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), will help the nation’s farmers produce, store, and export their agricultural products.
Agriculture is 20 percent of the Ukrainian economy and generates 40 percent of its exports. Ukraine is one of the leading wheat, corn, and sunflower oil suppliers to the world market. Wheat and corn production this year was forecast to be well below pre-war volumes due to a cost-price squeeze and damage to cropland.
Launched last July, AGRI-Ukraine has provided inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, financial and agricultural services, and storage to one third of Ukrainian farmers. It also supports infrastructure improvements to increase the grain handling rate at Danube ports and is enhancing checkpoints and rail lines to Ukraine’s western border.
“We’ve done really important work supporting the creativity and ingenuity of Ukrainian planners and engineers and farmers in developing other routes to get Ukrainian goods to market,” said Power during a news conference on Monday.
Ukraine has port terminals in three cities on the Danube River from which grain can be barged to Constanta, a port in Romania. Those ports’ capacity is far smaller than major ports such as Odesa and Chernomorsk.
Russia withdrew from the year-old Black Sea grain initiative on Monday rather than allow an extension, arguing the agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations failed to aid its agricultural exports. More than 32 million tons of Ukrainian grain was exported under the agreement, said a UN summary. Half of it went to developing nations, restoring food supply chains disrupted by the Russian invasion and bringing down food prices.
Russia fired drones and cruise missiles at Odesa early on Tuesday in an attack that it called “retribution” for suspected Ukrainian damage to a bridge to the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine said there was damage to some port facilities from debris and shock waves, but its air defenses shot down the Russian craft, reported the Associated Press.
The new round of money for AGRI-Ukraine follows an initial U.S. injection of $100 million. USAID said it has leveraged an additional $250 million in private-sector contributions to AGRI-Ukraine and sought an additional $250 million from the private sector, other donors, and foundations.