00:00A campaign of Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea
00:03have virtually halted all grain shipments.
00:06The ports usually account for about 90% of Ukraine's grain exports,
00:11and the strikes have caused a severe setback for the country's economy.
00:15Bloomberg's Pyotr Kozlov is joining us here in studio this morning to talk about this.
00:20Pyotr, tell us what this means for Ukrainian farmers.
00:23Well, Ukrainian farmers are suffering this year, especially dramatically,
00:27given that the strikes from Russia has intensified for the last few months.
00:32The ports of Odessa have been almost closed,
00:35which actually can lead to the slump of Ukrainian exports of agriculture,
00:39which means that only around half of its export revenues can be fallen down today.
00:47So the farmers right now are in a bad position
00:50because the prices on the domestic market have fallen,
00:53and the shippings are not happening from Odessa.
00:56So they're just trying to choose between bad and very bad situation,
01:00either to sell or just to wait until the better times.
01:03But the attacks are still happening, and I think it's escalating over the last days.
01:09So they're waiting what's going to happen next.
01:12And tell us how important the exports are for the Ukrainian economy.
01:17Ukraine's economy right now is suffering,
01:20starting from the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
01:24And today, it brings nearly half of its export revenue to the country's budget.
01:31If the exports wouldn't resume, it can affect around 3% to 4% of countries' year GDP.
01:40So it's quite sensible for the country.
01:43And on the other hand, the country is trying to restart the export from the western borders,
01:52from railways, just to try to go around the Odessa ports.
01:58But the situation isn't really good because there is a bottleneck,
02:01and it's not capable to send really the whole volumes of the grains to the exports.
02:09And talk to us about the impact on the global grain market then.
02:12Do we expect to see prices rise if they're not able to get this grain out of Ukraine?
02:18Ukraine, of course, is a big exporter of agriculture products.
02:22During the last month, the price of the world, wheat prices have reached its two-year high.
02:27And experts say that it even can go higher
02:30because the situation both in Ukraine and in Russian ports is still not changing.
02:36Both countries actually are called the breadbasket of the world.
02:40And it exports around even more than 25% of world wheat exports to the world market.
02:47The most valuable grains coming from this region is to the Middle East, Northern Africa countries and Asia.
02:55And right now, the countries from those regions are actually trying to find other options
03:01how they can substitute grains which are blocked in the Black Sea.
03:05So the situation is quite sensible, and it can affect in the end into the global prices, global food prices.
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