The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the financial support of Canada, has launched a new $40 million project to address the shortage of granaries in Ukraine; support and equipment.

As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Wednesday, this project will supplement the $17 million previously provided by Japan, which is designed to ensure the storage of 1 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada will finance the FAO purchase of funds for temporary and permanent storage of grain in 15 regions of Ukraine, including polyethylene bags for grain storage, handling equipment and long-term modular storage. In addition, FAO will procure up to $2 million worth of laboratory equipment to support six strategic laboratories for testing for animal diseases.

According to the ministry, this season Ukraine is expected to harvest up to 51.1 million tonnes of grain. Of the total grain storage capacity in the country of 75 million tonnes, 14% of the silos are damaged or destroyed, 10% are located in the territory occupied by Russia, and about 30% remain filled with 22 million tonnes of last year's crop, ready for export.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy said that the recently developed FAO strategy to support grain storage provides for the provision of 4.07 million tonnes of grain storage facilities to Ukraine in 2022-2023, which is 25% of the nationwide storage deficit of 16 million tonnes. The strategy also provides support to the State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection of Ukraine by strengthening the state capacity for testing and certification of food products needed for export at border facilities.

"Given the unprecedented crop storage challenges this year, large-scale innovative solutions are needed. For this reason, sector support will be required until 2023. FAO is responding quickly to this situation with a long-term perspective and is committed to investing in long-term solutions based on sectoral potential, in coordination with the government of Ukraine at the national and local levels," Rein Paulsen, Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, was quoted as saying.