Farmers in Ukraine are being forced to accept prices as low at £50 per tonne for barley and £67/t for wheat due a combination of a banking crash and their severely reduced ability to export out of the war-torn country.

Speaking to The Scottish Farmer, the CEO of to the Association Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Roman Slaston, said: “The current internal price of wheat is $80 to $120/t (£67 to £100/t) and $60 to 100/t (£50 to £83/t) for barley. Farmers are desperate. The price of logistics is going up every day. There is no bank financing, so speculators are trying to buy cheap. Many farmers plan to decrease plantings.”

On the world market, Ukrainian grain would be worth three times what its farmers are receiving domestically.

Current exports from the country are 2.2million tons of grain and oilseeds per month, but Mr Slaston hopes this will expand to 2.8millon tons in the coming months. If Ukraine was to regain access to its sea ports, this number could jump to four to five million tonnes per month, according to the agri business expert. However this is still well behind export levels before the Russian invasion, which sat at 6-7million tonnes per month. Without those sea ports, Ukrainian farmers will be able to export half their historic level at best.

Harvest estimates for this year are 65-70 million tons of grains and oilseeds from the Ukrainian controlled territory, plus the 20 million tonnes left in store from last year. Domestically Mr Slaston estimates the population will need 18-20 million tonnes, which leaves all this year’s harvest as export potential. Last year the country exported a total 86 million ton of grains and 20 million tons of oilseeds.