Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help support Ukraine's agricultural sector.

The UK remains committed to supporting Ukrainian agriculture, a key sector of Ukraine’s economy.

The UK’s support includes committing £8 million to President Zelenskyy’s ‘Grain from Ukraine’ initiative, which supports grain production in Ukraine and ensures that Ukrainian grain reaches some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

Ukraine’s maritime corridor in the Black Sea, established with UK and other partners’ support, will help enable Ukraine to export its entire harvest this year, if current export volumes are maintained.

Following a request from Ukraine in 2022, the UK has also committed £2.2 million to develop a grain verification scheme, designed to tackle the well-documented appropriation of Ukrainian grain by Russian forces in occupied regions of Ukraine. This will help Ukraine to deter continued Russian theft of grain.

In May 2022, the UK was the first country to liberalise all tariffs and quotas with Ukraine, supporting Ukraine’s economy. This liberalisation will be extended until at least 2029 for most products.

Last year, the UK provided £16 million to help fund the Ukrainian response to the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, which affected agricultural land, including donating pumping equipment and temporary barriers from the Environment Agency.

The UK was also pleased to host an agricultural roundtable at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023 to further facilitate investment in the Ukrainian agricultural sector.