Displaying items by tag: transport problems

The prospect of Ukraine’s wheat harvests being marooned by war has already sent wheat prices to record highs. If the crops cannot leave the country, global food shortages are likely. Ukraine is one of the world’s great breadbaskets. It is the top producer of sunflower seeds, its black-earth fields yield large oilseed crops, they export 12% of the world’s wheat and 17% of its corn. However the war has done grave damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure. Russian missiles have ruined airports, roads still existing have militarised checkpoints, and few companies want to send trucks across land borders already choked with refugees. Previously Ukraine’s sea ports exported 200,000 tonnes of wheat a day. Now the best it is likely to attain through transloading operations at every one of its western border crossings - Romania, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary - is ‘under 20,000 tonnes a day, altogether’.