He says that farmers hoped to sell products and get some ready cash to invest into the sowing season. On the other hand, grain from last and this year's harvest will need somewhere to be stored unless the ports will be unblocked by the end of the year. Ukraine used to export 4 million tons of grain per month. According to various estimates, when the supply begins to settle, the country will be able to export only 600 thousand tons per month, at best 1 million tons, but then it will have to reduce exports of other products, explains the expert.

«Accordingly, by early fall, with no exports including only domestic consumption, we will have 30−32 million tons in stock. I is too much. We need only 25 million tons a year. We are sowing and will continue to sow. Even if the 2022 harvest is 60 million tons, which means a very bad harvest for the country (we have been harvesting 100 million tons in recent years) it will still be too much. We will face the problem of lacking the place for storage. That is why the export volume of 600 thousand tons or even 1 million tons per month is not enough now. What should we do with the rest? This is the main problem, because due to export restrictions and seaports blocking the agrarians have no income. They expected to sell grain and put up money for the planting season. With the adoption of the Government decree and increasing exports, and we are working on this with the Ministry and the purchase from the state reserve the situation will improve, because the farmers will get ready cash,» adds Mikhailo Sokolov.

It was very important for the agrarians of all regions to hear from President Zelensky, that they should sow in the temporarily occupied territories as well, the expert stated.

«This signal was very important and people will do their work. I do not share the opinion that everything is lost and there will be nothing in the occupied territories. We expect that we will gather the crops, as it should be, and we will export it as well,» says the Deputy Chairman of the UAC.

Livestock farmers have problems with feed and processing their products because of the fighting. It is difficult to predict losses in this sector, but many farmers are trying to save livestock. Some milk processing plants continue operating and supplying their products to cities.

«Indeed, there are problems. Many processing plants have stopped working because of the war. If you produce milk, you have to deliver it and milk cows constantly. The war has dealt a major blow to the livestock industry. Some farms have problems with fodder. There will be a reduction in this sector, but it is hard to say in what degree. We will rebuild it after the war. But the threat that cattle breeding will suffer losses does exist,» the expert is convinced.

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