“The extraordinary circumstances facing the agricultural sector and the country's economy as a whole require extraordinary decisions on issues that go beyond the powers of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and can only be resolved at the level of the Council of Ministers“, the appeal says. The farmers called on the prime minister to “hold a personal meeting with representatives of the Supreme Agricultural Council to discuss urgent measures to support the industry“.
The Ukrainian Agricultural Association (UAA) noted that “the combination of problems with maritime logistics, damaged port infrastructure, export restrictions and rising resource costs poses a threat of unprofitable production and bankruptcy of enterprises“. According to UAA experts, the production of primary cereals and oilseeds will reach approximately 81.4 million tons in the 2026-2027 marketing year, and taking into account transitional balances, the total available supply for consumption and export will be approximately 85 million tons. Ukraine needs to export approximately 67 million tons of agricultural products, but if seaports are closed, export capacity may drop to 1.7 million tons per month, creating a surplus of products on the domestic market.
“The prolonged blockade of seaports threatens to create a huge surplus of agricultural products – 27 to 32 million tons of agricultural products will weigh on the market throughout the marketing year“, the UAA noted. According to the association, due to the suspension of purchases by traders, purchase prices have begun to fall sharply. In some cases, they have fallen to 7,000 hryvnias ($156) per ton, which is below the full cost of production. “The situation requires immediate action. This is not a typical seasonal deterioration in the market situation, but a risk of disrupting the production cycle in one of the key sectors of the Ukrainian economy,“ the Ukrainian Defense Ministry warned.