Finland to grant €3m to support Ukraine’s food security, grain exports

Finland will grant EUR 3 million in additional support to improve food security in Ukraine, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release on Friday.

The funding will be used to support Ukrainian exports of grain to countries where food security is adversely affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some of the funds will be used to help clear mines in rural Ukraine to restart agricultural production.

Finland has been supporting the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ukrainian grain exports since February 2022 to mitigate the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With Finland’s support, the WFP is buying grain from Ukraine and taking it to African countries affected by the food crisis.

EUR 2 million of the funding now granted will be allocated as humanitarian assistance to the Grain from Ukraine Initiative implemented by the WFP. Finland’s earlier support for Ukraine’s grain exports amounts to EUR 11.5 million.

Finland also supports demining in Ukraine to help farmers reclaim their land for cultivation.

It has been estimated that as much as one third of Ukraine’s farmland is now contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance.

Thousands of farms and rural households have been forced to cut down or shut down their agricultural activity.

To address this challenge, the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have launched a new programme in Ukraine that combines demining, humanitarian assistance and development cooperation.

“By supporting the recovery of Ukraine’s agricultural sector in areas exposed to war, we are helping Ukraine to improve its food security and revive its economy,” said Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio.

The programme has been prepared in close cooperation with the Ukrainian government.

The additional funding means that Finland’s total contribution to humanitarian demining in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s war will be approximately EUR 8.25 million.

Ukraine will hold an International Summit on Food Security on 25 November, drawing attention to the food security impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.