Statement by the delegation of Ukraine at the UN GA Second Committee under Item 26 "Agriculture development, food security and nutrition"

Statement by the delegation of Ukraine at the UN GA Second Committee under Item 26 "Agriculture development, food security and nutrition"

Mr.Chair,

Distinguished Delegates,

Dear colleagues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the profound structural transformations of food systems.

In the current challenging situation, we have redouble our focus on eradicating hunger, improving nutrition and health, protecting and improving human well-being, and using territorial approaches as a tool to promote local initiatives to accelerate rural and urban development.

In this light, we encourage intensified coordination between all UN agencies, in particular FAO, IFAD and WFP, and the International Financial Institutions. The UN must continue to work together as a system, making use of the comparative advantages of its different institutions, in order to increase its effectiveness.

The problem of the global food insecurity is especially close to us. Ukraine, like nobody, knows the price of hunger. Therefore, we are convinced that the complexity and multidimensional causes of hunger demand participation of all stakeholders in seeking ways to eradicate it.

Mr. Chair,

Ukraine remains among the strongest players on international food market and demonstrates a high potential to become one of the real guarantors of world food security. We occupy the top ten in the ranking of the largest exporters of sunflower oil (1st place), barley (2nd place), corn (4th place), wheat (5th place), butter and poultry meat (6th place), milk powder (8th place).

Moreover, high soil fertility, given Ukraine's possession of a third of the world's black soil, logistics structure and attractive labor costs are a stable basis for further development of food systems in Ukraine. Besides, the development of agricultural education, innovations in arable farming and irrigation, clustering and digitalization continue to be the driving force behind the development of the agricultural sector that increases the production and export potential of Ukraine annually.

Therefore, now that, when 700 million people in the world, especially on the African continent, are starving and another one billion do not get enough nutrients in their diet, we can not stand apart from this problems and are ready to offer the world their help in addressing the issue of food security.

Mr. Chair,

At the same time, it is very important that the emergency measures taken to combat the pandemic do not jeopardize access to agricultural products for countries in greatest need.

In this regard, Ukraine supports the urgency to intensify efforts to strengthen coordination and cooperation at the international level, in particular by supporting the functioning of agricultural supply chains and refraining from unjustified measures to restrict the export of such products, which could have a negative impact on food security, nutrition and human health of countries dependent on Ukrainian agricultural exports.

We continue to pursue a policy of non-application of export restrictions on agricultural products and food, and is practicing to signing Memorandum of Understanding with grain market participants since 2011, which is a successful practice in terms of compliance by signatories with the possibility of exporting grain volumes, and allows, on the one hand, to ensure the projected grain export regime, and contributes to the stabilization of the domestic consumer grain market, on the other hand.

Mr. Chair,

Cooperation with UN specialized agencies remains one of the priority directions of foreign economic activity of my country and important factor in the national food strategy.

We are strengthening our relationship with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, focusing on three priority areas: conservation and sustainable use of natural resources; improved agriculture and rural development policy and programming, considering Ukraine's role in contributing to regional and global food security in the European Union context; strengthening of value chain development.

Ukraine keeps the problem of food insecurity as a priority on its agenda in order to respect the right to food, which is a fundamental human right. In this regard, we welcome the holding of the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021 and hope that its results will have real practical significance for solving the problem of food security in the world.

Thank you for your attention.