About 15 million tons of agricultural products were exported through sea ports in almost three months of 2024.
From the beginning of 2023, out of 17 million tons of agricultural exports, about 12 million tons were sent through the ports of Greater Odessa, almost 3 million tons passed through the ports on the Danube and only 2 million - by land transport, mostly by rail, through neighboring EU countries.
As CTS reports, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Mykola Solsky, said this during the meeting of the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries (Agrifish), which took place on March 26 in Brussels.
"We transit through Poland in a month as much as we export through Ukrainian seaports in one day. Now the cost of exports from Ukraine by sea is much more competitive than by land," explained Mykola Solskyi.
He added that the export of Ukrainian agricultural products does not have a negative impact on EU markets, and in some places it plays a role in stabilizing the price balance. For example, the price of sugar in the EU is still significantly higher than it was before the full-scale invasion. If Ukrainian sugar is removed from the market, the price in the EU will increase even more.
"If we analyze the figures as of today, it turns out that we are discussing problems, the scale of which is actually much smaller. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian agricultural sector has become the object of negative myths, which in fact have no economic basis, but mainly became a product of the political situation. What is most painful for us is that the discussion of these myths overshadows the most important goal - the ability of Ukraine to withstand and win the war with Russia," the Minister of Agrarian Policy emphasized.