Earlier this week, Ukraine appealed to the European Union during a meeting of agriculture ministers in Brussels, asking it to allocate at least EUR 1 billion to compensate for additional logistics costs for agricultural exports amid Russia's blockade of deepwater ports in the Black Sea, but there has been no response yet.
"At this point, we cannot yet speak of any response, because the appeal ... was submitted only this week. Our colleagues need some time to consider it," Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky told journalists on Friday.
He specified that the amount of aid required was estimated based on EUR 50 per tonne of products, so EUR 1.1 billion could stimulate up to 20 million tonnes of additional exports.
"We will ask our European partners for feedback, and then we will be able to talk about the potential outcome," the minister said.
Earlier, Vysotsky said that as of late September-early October, Ukraine's agricultural exports amid Russia's continuing blockade of Black Sea ports amounted to up to 50% of the potential volume. Without additional measures, this would mean that about 30 million tonnes of agricultural products worth approximately $10 billion would be impossible to export in the current marketing year.
