The cost of rebuilding Ukraine’s agriculture sector is expected to be more than US$55bn, according to a joint report by the government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission (EC) and the United Nations (UN), reported by World Grain.
According to the updated Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA4) published on 25 February, three years after Russia’s invasion, the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine is estimated at US$524bn over the next decade, which is almost three times the estimated nominal GDP of Ukraine for 2024.
Priorities highlighted in the report included the recovery of housing, energy and critical infrastructure, with agriculture listed as a separate section.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading exporters of wheat, barley and corn, and the top supplier of sunflowerseed meal and oil. The total losses of its agricultural sector due to its war with Russia were estimated at around US$80bn, according to agricultural consultancy UkrAgroConsult, citing a presentation on RDNA4 by Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Vitaly Koval.
According to Koval, the total includes direct and indirect losses from disruption of logistics, reclamation, demining or loss of land, and fertiliser and fuel price increases. World Bank calculations showed direct losses in Ukraine’s agricultural sector totalled US$11.2bn, with an additional US$700M loss in irrigation and water resources.
A US Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Agricultural Supply and Demand report projected Ukraine would produce 22.9M tonnes of wheat in the 2024/25 marketing year, down 0.43% from the previous year; 26.5M tonnes of corn, down 18.5%; 5.9M tonnes of barley, down 7%; 12.9M tonnes of sunflowerseed, down 16.7%.
“The Ministry of Agrarian Policy, together with international partners, is working on various programmes to support farmers. An important priority is to help farmers in frontline territories,” Koval was quoted as saying in the 26 February World Grain report.
