Kenya has received the first consignment of wheat from Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The vessel, dubbed ‘Super Henry’ docked at the Port of Mombasa on Sunday carrying 51,400 tons of Ukrainian wheat.
Ukrainian ambassador to Kenya Andrii Pravednyk received the vessel and supervised the offloading of the wheat.
Pravednyk said that Ukraine is one of the world largest grain suppliers, with the share in global trade around 10 per cent.
“The war against Ukraine has affected about 25 per cent of the world cereal trade, caused an increase in world prices, food inflation, and reduced access to food in the countries that import food from Ukraine, in particular wheat and sunflower oil,” said Pravednyk.
Pravednyk said that two more vessels had already left the Ukrainian port one carrying 53,800 metric tons with the other one carrying 23,000 thousand metric tons of wheat.
“This brings the total amount of wheat that Ukraine is sending to Kenya to 128,200 metric tons which are still not enough. We will continue working together with Kenyan authorities and commercial companies to bring more wheat to Kenya,” Pravednyk said.
According to Ukrainian statistics, in 2021 Ukraine exported to Kenya a record 355.5 thousand metric tons of wheat worth USD 89.7 million.
Last year Kenya imported approximately 2.4 million tons of wheat making Ukrainian share of wheat in the Kenyan market comprise around 15 per cent in the overall Kenyan wheat import balance.
As per UN World Food Programme Report of August 2022, 4.1 million Kenyans are acutely food insecure, which requires immediate and resolute actions.
“We are confident that the arrival of “Super Henry” to the Port of Mombasa with 51,400 tons of Ukrainian wheat on board will bring significant relief to Kenyan consumers, helping to mitigate the prices and remove the deficit,” Pravednyk said.
The ambassador said that the missiles strikes and shelling by Russian troops had damaged and destroyed dozens of farms, stocks of food and seed, silos, warehouses, oil depots, agriculture machinery and equipment.
He said that At least 90 agribusinesses have been damaged in Ukraine adding that about 13 percent of Ukrainian territory had been contaminated by Russian mines and explosive remnants of war.