The UK will launch a Grain Verification Scheme to track grain stolen from occupied areas of Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
Britain has developed a database to support Ukraine’s efforts to trace and stop grain theft from occupied regions, using “cutting-edge” science to determine where grain has been grown and harvested.
The project was developed after Ukraine – which has had its agricultural and logistical capabilities weakened since the start of the war in February 2022 – requested support from G7 countries in tracing grain stolen from territories under Russian control and sold on the international market.
The scheme aims to bolster Ukraine’s food security and also ensure the eastern European nation can safely remain a major supplier of agricultural produce worldwide.
Meeting at the Global Forum for Food & Agriculture in Berlin, Defra minister Daniel Zeichner signed a memorandum of understanding with Vitaliy Koval, the Ukraine minister of agrarian policy and food, ahead of the scheme’s launch.
The database will be handed over to Ukraine “in the coming weeks”, according to Defra.
“The UK’s support for Ukraine is ironclad,” Zeichner said. “The Grain Verification Scheme will support Ukraine’s essential food supply and helps guarantee their security in the face of Russian aggression.
“Using the latest science, we can track grain to its source – identifying stolen grain to help Ukraine take back what’s theirs.”
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The initiative is also part of the UK’s 100-year partnership with Ukraine, where the two countries aim to deepen their relationship across defence and non-military areas, including agriculture.
Despite the significant impact of the conflict on Ukraine’s agriculture sector and supply chains, the war-ridden country still managed to ramp up its agricultural exports last year, according to its deputy minister for agrarian policy & food Golovnya Vitaliy.
Vitaliy said last September that Ukraine expected to export more than 50 million tonnes of crucial crops, including wheat, oils and soy, in the 2024/25 season.
Export forecasts pointed to around 40 million tonnes in grains and 12 million tonnes of oilseeds, helped by Ukraine’s recently launched Black Sea shipping corridor near Romania and Bulgaria.
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