Ukraine's farmers pin hopes on export corridor as war cost mounts
A local resident Mykola, 68, walks amidst the debris at a site of a farm that was destroyed last year by Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the village of Kamianka in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
Ukraine's efforts to revive sea exports in defiance of Russia's military blockade have given a glimmer of hope to a teetering farm sector in which loss-making producers are abandoning some land in one of the world's biggest grain belts.
With no end in sight to the war with Russia, access to the Black Sea is critical if Ukraine is to preserve an agricultural industry that was the fourth-largest grain supplier globally before the conflict and in value terms accounted for half of Ukraine's total exports last year.
