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Ukraine war: Russia blockade will increase global hunger and instability, UN organization warns | World News


The World Food Program has said that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine will lead to further hunger, starvation and instability worldwide if it cannot be lifted.

The warning came as Sky News gained rare access to the port of Odesa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.

The port was supposed to be busy exporting tens of thousands of tons of grain, but its huge grain elevators were not working.

Sky showed a huge grain cargo ship with a tonnage of 60,000 tons.

It should have gone to Egypt in February but was still anchored Russia’s naval blockade.

Opposite the ship, 30 large bunkers filled with grain.

A quarter of a million tons lay there for months with no means of getting it out to sea.

Matthew Hollingworth is the emergency coordinator of the World Food Program for Ukraine.

He said unless something delivers impact will wreak havoc around the world.

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“Without a doubt, that means hunger areas of the world will get worse. That hunger will get worse.

“And we’re in a situation where the economies of the world are only partially getting better from COVID-19 and this situation will put many countries ahead.”

They call Ukraine bread tray of the world.

Grain silos
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Thirty giant cellars still filled with grain with no way of getting it out to sea

Its rich black soil is one of the finest in the world. Its fertility allows Ukraine to export 70% of its crops. Its harvest last year fed 400 million people.

Dutch farmer Kees Huizinga came to Odesa to farm 20 years ago.

His farm was large by British standards, spanning over 37,000 acres.

He tried to export some of last year’s harvest overland by truck, but had to wait six days at the border and would only deliver a small portion of his grain.

According to him, if the naval blockade is not lifted, it will be a disaster for his dependents and millions of people around the world.

“For us, for the company, that means bankruptcy and 400 employees without a job and I don’t have a job,” he said.

“I mean more than 70% of the crops grown in Ukraine are exported, and the people who really need them in poor countries, they won’t get it, so they’ll die.”

Kees Huizinga
Picture:
Kees Huizinga can only transfer part of his seeds

Even if the EU opens its land border to Ukrainian grain, up to two million tons could be exported a month.

Between five and seven million tons need to be consumed.

Ukraine says it needs NATO to act to escort cargo ships through the blockade or be supplied with weapons to attack the Russian navy instead.

That risks triggering a confrontation between NATO and Russia.

Rice field
Picture:
Ukraine is known as the cradle of the world

But the alternative could be global unrest, civil unrest elsewhere, perhaps revolution and war.

Western governments are grappling with this problem, but three months on they still have not found a solution and time is running out.

The next Ukrainian harvest is in a month or two. If by that time Ukrainian farmers cannot sell their harvest, they will go bankrupt and cannot buy seeds or fertilizers.

Then, the world’s bread bed will see its agriculture become a basket of potentially disastrous consequences for hundreds of millions of people.



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