Grain From Ukraine program

Wheat from Ukraine in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (March 2023)

Prior to 2022, Ukraine was one of the key World Food Programme grain suppliers and the world's 4th largest grain exporter. The blockade of Ukrainian ports by the Black Sea Fleet in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion interrupted grain exports, rapidly increasing global food prices and fueling food crises, greatly increasing the risk of famine in the poorest countries.[4]

Grain exports from Ukraine were resumed within the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July and August 2022.[4] From August to November 2022, over 11 billion tons of supplies went to 38 countries, and WFP and USAID resumed humanitarian shipments to the poorest countries.[5]

The Grain from Ukraine program was proposed by the president Vladimir Zelensky at the 2022 G20 Bali summit as a way to support humanitarian shipments to the countries in need and Ukrainian grain producers.[6][7][8] The initiative was officially launmched on November 26, 2022, at the food security summit in Kyiv on the 90th anniversary of Holodomor.[9][3]

Ukrainian authorities emphasized that the Grain from Ukraine program aims to highlight the role of Ukraine as a responsible member of the global community, and to challenge the Russian propaganda which put the blame for the food crises on Ukraine and its Western partners.[3]

The goal of the Grain from Ukraine program is to prevent famine and provide food to no less than 5 million people in the poorest countries of Africa and Asia, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Sudan, Southern Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, and Nigeria. Ukrainian authorities scheduled around 60 shipments, each providing food to up to 90 thousand people.[10] Donor countries purchase the grain from a separate pool, accumulating harvest from small and medium-sized farms. The freight costs are covered by the Grain from Ukraine program participants.[7][8][11]

By the end of 2022, donations to Grain from Ukraine totaled up to US$200 million from 30 countries.[6]

• Ukraine purchased 50 thousand tons of grain for the first two ships (around 420 million hrivnas); Germany and Japan paid for the freight.[12]
• The European Commission donated funds to purchase 40 thousand tons of grain.[13] This came in addition to EUR 1 billion provided within the Solidarity Laanes food export program.[9]
• USAID provided US$20 million in addition to US$173 million donated to WFP to purchase grain within the Black Sea Grain Initiative.[6] and over US$11 billion in humanitarian aid provided to the poorest countries in 2022.[4][14]
• South Korea donated US$3 million via the WFP.[15]
• Sweden donated SEK 100 million (US$9,5 million) in addition to SEK 400 million provided to SEK 400 million provided earlier to WFP.[16]
• Other donors included Austria (US$3,9 million), the UK (US$6 million), Canada (US$30 million), Netherlands (US$4 million).,[17] France (US$20 million),[9] as well as Germany, Qatar, Norway, Poland,[18] Turkey, and Japan.[6]

In November and December 2022, the first shipments were complete to Ethiopia and Somalia, and several more ships were on the way.[7][8][19][20][21][22]

• Food security
• Black Sea Grain Initiative
• United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union