Ukrainian grain exports in the first 17 days of October were just 2.4% lower than in the same period of 2021 despite the closure of several seaports and the Russian invasion, agriculture ministry data has shown.
The country's grain exports have slumped since February as the war closed off Ukraine's Black Sea ports, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.
Three Black Sea ports were unblocked at the end of July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
The ministry's data showed that Ukraine has exported 2.12 million tonnes of grain, mostly corn and wheat, so far in October, versus 2.17 million tonnes in the same period of October, 2021.
The data also showed that Ukraine has exported a total of 10.8 million tonnes of grain so far in the 2022/23 July-June season compared with 16.5 million in the same period of 2021/22.
This season's volume includes 3.99 million tonnes of wheat, 5.88 million tonnes of corn and 896,000 tonnes of barley.
Black Sea Grain Deal
Elsewhere, Russia on Monday told a top United Nations representative that the extension of a landmark Black Sea grain deal was dependent on the West easing Russia's own agricultural and fertiliser exports, the defence ministry said in a statement.
In a meeting in Moscow, Russia's deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin told UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths that extending the deal, which unlocked Ukrainian agricultural exports from its southern ports, "directly depends on ensuring full implementation of all previously reached agreements."
Russia says the impact of Western sanctions on logistics, payments, shipping and insurance prevents it from exporting fertilisers and chemicals like ammonia and that easing those restrictions was a key part of the deal, brokered in July by Turkey and the United Nations.
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