Kiev
- Ukraine was previously described as the "food basket of the Soviet Union", and the authorities later presented it as a "global food basket" capable of providing and guaranteeing food security for the countries of Europe and other countries of the world.
The territory of Ukraine is characterized by its black soil so fertile, that historians assert that the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler stole large amounts of Ukrainian soil to Germany by freight trains in the 1940s.
Agricultural land occupies an area of approximately 60.4 million hectares, out of the total area of Ukraine of about 604 thousand square kilometers, and forests constitute about 15% of the country's area.
agricultural exports
After the industrial sector, agriculture ranks second in importance to the economy of Ukraine. The most prominent Ukrainian agricultural products are:
Cereals (wheat, barley, corn, sugar beet), as Ukraine occupies the sixth place in the world among the leading wheat and corn exporters, and its factories produce all foodstuffs manufactured from grains.
Oil crops (mainly sunflower and corn seeds and oils).
Vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, onions, beetroot, garlic).
Honey, Ukraine is first in Europe and third in the world in the production and export of honey.
Fish, Ukraine was the source of 7% of the world's fish market needs, but this percentage declined after the occupation of the Crimea on the Black Sea in 2014.
Meat and poultry. Ukraine produces all its needs of meat and poultry, and is considered a major exporter to many neighboring countries and the world. The most prominent meat exports of Ukraine are: beef, pork, chicken meat, in addition to eggs and various types of cheese and milk.
The agricultural sector's products represent 45% of the total Ukrainian exports. This figure reflects the sector's contributions to the country's foreign exchange. In 2020, for example, $22.4 billion was entered into the Ukrainian economy.
The year 2020 is remembered because it is considered the "best" in the history of Ukraine's exports of sunflower oil (6.9 million tons), poultry (431 thousand tons), honey (81 thousand tons), fruits (55 thousand tons) and pasta (30 thousand tons).
Products of the agricultural sector represent 45% of the total Ukrainian exports (Getty Images)
Export countries
The share of Asian countries - on average - accounts for almost half of the total Ukrainian agricultural exports (48.7%), while the share of the European Union is 29%, Africa is 12.9%, and the CIS is 5.8%.
The main consumers of Ukrainian agricultural products in general are, in order: China, India, the Netherlands, Egypt ($1.37 billion in 2020), Turkey ($1.07 billion), Spain, Poland, Italy and Germany.
As for grain exports in particular - being the largest and most prominent - they average about 50 million tons annually, and the main importing countries are, respectively: China, Egypt (1.12 billion dollars), Indonesia, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey (473 million dollars), Tunisia ( $347 million), Bangladesh, South Korea, Libya ($265 million).
Ukraine exports about 450 thousand tons of meat annually, and here Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of importing countries for Ukrainian poultry meat (18.4%), followed by the Netherlands, UAE (8.3% of total exports), Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan;
The share of these countries represents 59% of the total sales of Ukrainian meat on the world market.
esoteric wealth
Ukraine has more than 20 thousand quarries, and 120 different types of mines, of which 8,172 are simple mines, and 94 large industrial mines, to extract the following:
Coal (brick and coke): Coal mines are widespread in Ukraine, operating since 1795 in the Donetsk, Lviv and Volyn regions.
Iron ore: Ukraine holds about 46% of all the reserves of the former Soviet Union, and more than 5% of the iron ore reserves around the world.
Sulfur: Ukraine's sulfur reserves are the largest in the world.
Mercury ore (cinnabar or cinnabar): Ukraine ranks second in the world in the volume of its reserves.
Ukraine's economy is threatened by the "Nord Stream 2" project, which will deprive the country of transportation revenues (Al-Jazeera)
war fears
Based on the foregoing, it is easy to explain the extent of global fears in general, and Arabs in particular, of a possible war in Ukraine, because of the repercussions of this war on production and export quantities.
In addition to what was mentioned above, media reports mention that half of Lebanon's wheat imports come from Ukraine, and Yemen, Libya and Egypt import from them (respectively) 22%, 43% and 14% of their wheat needs.
A report by the Analytical Department of the "Kiev School of Economics" recently indicated that the shares of 6 major Ukrainian agricultural companies declined in global stock exchanges at the end of last January due to war fears, forcing them to sell many shares.
Al Jazeera Net spoke to Victoria Movchan, an expert at the Center for Economic Studies in the capital, Kiev, who said: "The economy of Ukraine today is stronger than it was, and its reserves amount to $31 billion, while it was $18 billion in 2014. Therefore, we consider that Russia is not only threatening with tanks. Rather, it is targeting the Ukrainian economy to weaken it as well."
She explained that Ukraine's economy is threatened by the "Nord Stream 2" project, which will deprive the country of transportation revenues (2-3 billion dollars annually), and due to the nearly 7-fold rise in gas prices, and all this will be reflected in inflation rates, prices and export quantities.
3 expected stages
On the export side, Movchan talks about 3 expected stages, but all of them are based on speculation that there will not be an all-out war, but on the continuation of tension around Ukraine, and the continued rise in gas prices.
She says: "The best of these stages, the first of which will raise the value of exports by 7-9%, before it decreases relatively with the end of the heating season (due to the decline in the purchase of gas quantities), and the second may raise the percentage to 9-10% in the autumn period, with the need to store Gas for the winter, and the third depends on gas prices in the winter, which Russia may raise, as it did months ago, and then the percentage will rise to 15-20%.
And she concludes by saying: "It is difficult to imagine the extent of the damage locally and globally as a result of the war, and as I said, the Ukrainian economy is targeted, and therefore if the war is comprehensive, this means a paralysis affecting the work of ports and airports, which means depriving importers of Ukraine's exports, and the high prices of its products locally and globally at record rates. ".