Dmytro Kuleba / REUTERS
The coronavirus creates a unique opportunity for Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says that the coronavirus pandemic creates an opportunity for Ukraine to confirm the status of a global breadbasket for ensuring food security.
The country's Foreign Ministry has developed its vision of the national idea of Ukraine, which concerns the role of the country as a guarantor of global food security, the minister said in the article titled "Feed and Conquer," published by Dzerkalo Tyzhnia Weekly.
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The minister says the COVID-19 pandemic poses both threats and unexpected opportunities to Ukraine. "According to the UN, now about 820 million people in the world are chronically malnourished, of which 113 million live in hunger. The pandemic has already worsened and will make this situation worse. The shutdown has severed sustainable food supply chains. It has become apparent that the global economy that everyone is accustomed to is in fact incredibly vulnerable. Hunger statistics have already started to rise. Under such conditions, Ukraine's breadbasket acquires an unexpectedly high weight," Kuleba said.
In his opinion, the coronavirus creates a unique opportunity for Ukraine. "[This is an opportunity] to become Global Breadbasket 2.0 almost a century after the tragic test of the Holodomor genocide. Not the one from which grain is sold abroad for the sake of 'gold for the party,' but the one that is able to guarantee food security for itself and its partners. By this, gaining authority and influence in the international arena. It sounds ambitious, but realistic," Kuleba said.
He is convinced that under the new conditions, the issue of food security has every chance to become more relevant than the issue of energy prices. In this regard, Ukraine's place in the world should be formulated as a "guarantor of global food security."
The minister added that since the beginning of the pandemic, Ukrainian diplomats had seen the growing interest in importing traditional products from Ukraine. The geography of requests is from Chile to India. "Top [products] are maize, wheat, barley, soybeans, animal feed, wheat bran, vegetable oils, oilseeds, nuts, malt, certain types of vegetables and fruits. The Foreign Ministry's analytics testifies to the great potential of Ukrainian food in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and certain regions of Latin America," Kuleba said.
He also noted that the Foreign Ministry seeks to maximize and improve the supply on the food market.