Wednesday, September 27, 2023
HomeMy workin the post-Soviet worldWho saved Ukrainian agriculture?

Who saved Ukrainian agriculture?

RSI – 24/11/2022

The war in Ukraine put the global food market in crisis. The country is on of the leading cereal producers in the world – wheat, corn, sunflower seeds, soybeans, barley – before the Russian invasion exported in huge quantities to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Since July 2022 a series of agreements between Kyiv and Moscow, mediated by Turkey and the United Nations, have allowed the recovery of Ukrainian exports, thanks to the reopening of some ports on the Black Sea, for example the one in Odessa.
Many poor countries at risk of starvation have been once again able to rely on Ukrainian grain, and grain prices returned to pre-war levels.
How is it possible for Ukraine to produce and export its agricultural products during the conflict? How can Ukrainian agricultural workers do their job with an ongoing war?
To answer these questions I traveled to the Ukrainian countryside in the vast area of territory that runs along the Russian border from north to east. The result is this long reportage (in Italian) produced for RSI (Swiss National Public Radio and Television) with videomaker Claudio Enrico Maggiolini…