EU plan aims to help get wheat from Ukraine to the world

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission proposed helping Ukraine export its wheat and other grains by rail, road and river to get around a Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, which is preventing those critical supplies from reaching parts of the world at risk of food insecurity.

The European Union’s executive arm said the plan aims to establish alternative routes and ease congestion between borders that also should facilitate getting humanitarian aid and other goods into the war-torn country.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provoked disruptions of global food supplies, with both countries two of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat, barley and sunflower oil. The blockade of Ukrainian ports has been particularly harmful, having accounted for 90% of grain and oilseed exports before the war, the commission said.

“Twenty million tons of grains have to leave Ukraine in less than three months using the EU infrastructure,” said Adina Valean, EU commissioner for transport. “This is a gigantesque challenge, so it is essential to coordinate and optimize the logistic chains, put in place new routes, and avoid, as much as possible, the bottlenecks.”

The potential loss of affordable grain supplies that Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia rely on has raised the risk of global food shortages and political instability in countries where many people already were not getting enough to eat. The disruptions from the war have further raised food prices, with the high cost of fertilizers — of which Russia is a top exporter — and cooking oils further squeezing the global food chain.

The head of the European Investment Bank said this week that Ukraine is “sitting on 8 billion euros worth of wheat” it can’t export.

In addition to the port blockade, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has...