The United States Announces Additional Funding to Deliver Ukrainian Grain to the World’s Most Vulnerable

The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing up to $20 million for the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative, announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the G20 Summit earlier this week, to help feed people around the world facing staggering levels of food insecurity. USAID will provide support through the UN World Food Program (WFP) to facilitate additional shipments of Ukrainian grain moving through the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Before Putin’s invasion, Ukraine was one of WFP’s top suppliers of grain and the fourth largest commercial exporter of wheat globally. The Kremlin’s brutal war against Ukraine halted shipments and for months, millions of tons of grain and essential food exports were stuck in the country, exacerbating an already catastrophic global food crisis and sending food prices soaring. Since the UN-brokered agreement began in August, the Initiative has helped to stabilize spiraling food prices worldwide and provided desperately needed food to millions of people.

Today’s announcement builds on the $173 million to date in existing U.S. support to WFP to purchase Ukrainian grain to feed people in countries facing the most severe food crises, including Ethiopia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. U.S. funding has purchased 210,000 metric tons of food, enough to feed approximately 12.6 million people for one month.

Since the beginning of Putin’s war against Ukraine in February, the United States has provided more than $11 billion to respond to the global food crisis, including nearly $8.6 billion in humanitarian assistance. USAID humanitarian assistance, including our support to WFP, includes direct food assistance, as well as other support including safe drinking water, health care, and protection to meet needs made even worse by food crises.

USAID also continues to assist Ukraine’s farmers, who are risking their lives to feed the world, through the Agriculture Resilience Initiative – Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine). AGRI-Ukraine is bolstering Ukrainian agriculture production and exports while addressing the sector’s long term needs. The initiative focuses on four areas that are critical to sustain Ukraine’s agricultural exports and its contributions to global food security: providing critical inputs for farmers; improving export logistics and infrastructure; increasing farmers’ access to financing, and supporting crop drying, storage, and processing needs. USAID has invested $100 million in the initiative, and the agency is seeking to raise at least $150 million in additional funding from fellow donors, foundations, and the private sector.