Tracking the challenges facing Ukrainian grain, all the way from farm to table

LONDON -- In the middle of the night on Sept. 25, Russian drones struck grain infrastructure at a river port in Ukraine as people waiting for the nearby ferry started running for their lives when buildings started catching fire.

This has been a regular feature of life in Ukraine’s agriculture industry since the war with Russia began in Feb. 2022.

This has led to Ukraine’s 2023 to 2024 crop production being forecast to be the smallest in more than a decade, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, meaning the consequences of the war in Ukraine have been felt at every step of the agricultural process, all the way from farm to table.

In the fields

As soon as Russian troops were beaten back from the lands surrounding Kyiv in March 2022, the region’s farmers came rushing back to try to salvage their crops. But even now -- more than a year and a half later -- farmers are still feeling the consequences of the brief but violent occupation.

Dmytro Skornyakov is the CEO of the Ukrainian agriculture company HarvEast. When he and his employees returned to their fields, they found bombed-out silos, ruined equipment and thousands of acres of explosive mines left behind on their lands.

Removing the mines is possible but the process is long and laborious for the country’s experts -- particularly since their priority remains removing them from towns and villages, not agricultural lands -- meaning thousands of acres of farmland are still waiting to be demined.

Meanwhile, in the fields HarvEast can use, what they do grow has now been dictated by the sheer economics of logistics.

The cost of moving grain out of the country has risen so high and so rapidly that it no longer makes economic sense to grow cheap crops like corn and winter wheat -- staples of Ukrainian agriculture.

“At the moment we grow more sunflower than usual, more soy than usual, and significantly less corn and wheat,” Skornyakov told ABC News.

However, even these crops are more expensive to produce than usual since the war began. They are now grown in lesser quantities and take longer to move out of the country.

“So every step we’re doing at the moment is 2 or 3 times more expensive than it was before the war,” Skornyakov continued.

Analyst Michael Lee, director of Green Square Agro Consulting, says that cash flow is one of the biggest problems Ukrainian farmers are facing meaning that some farmers are left with no choice but to grow those cheaper crops.

"They just need to generate some cash,” Lee told ABC News.

Yet, despite these challenges, Lee says farmers have still managed to generate results.

"The Black Sea grain production is there. It's just there's other issues in terms of logistics and supply, getting out of the country,” Lee said.

The port cities

From her home in Tulcea, Romania, Corina Davidov can see the explosions that regularly rock the Ukrainian city of Izmail, just across the border from where she lives.

“We are used to the war being near, with drones lighting up the night sky,” Davidov says.

Izmail is one of a few Ukrainian towns on the Danube River which have actually seen massive growth in their handling of agricultural product.

Before the war, Black Sea ports like Odesa handled the near totality of exports, but the protected nature of the Danube River -- along with its proximity to Romania, a NATO member -- has bolstered activity in towns like Izmail.

This, however, has not stopped Russia from sending drones and missiles to attack the grain infrastructure at the port, like it has at other ports in Ukraine.

Colin Carter is an agricultural economist at the University of California, Davis. He believes the attacks on the river ports are absolutely targeted at grain infrastructure and agricultural production in Ukraine.

“Putin not only declared war on Ukraine, but he also declared war on the world's food supply,” Carter said, adding that Putin has tried to take advantage of it with Russia’s own wheat exports.

Satellite images show specific damage to buildings in the port of Izmail that have been destroyed over multiple attacks in the last few months, with many of the missile and drone strikes setting fire to and ruining warehouses of grain that were waiting to be exported.

Not only does this destroy the grain waiting to be shipped, it creates uncertainty and drives up prices.

This, however, is only the first roadblock to the export ordeal.

Export headaches

Ukraine’s exports were nearly completely cut off during the beginning of the war due to shipping restrictions in the Black Sea and heightened risks at Ukrainian ports, the USDA said.

Yet despite the recent port attacks, Carter, the agriculture economist, believes the river port alternative is Ukraine’s best export route now even though Romania is struggling to increase its grain-handling capacity as its port in Constanta steps into its key role handling transiting Ukrainian grain.

Meanwhile, many of Ukraine's neighboring countries, including Romania, have banned Ukrainian grain imports.

HarvEast CEO Skornyakov says promises of transit corridors from Poland, and the continued use of the port of Constanta, are essential to keep grain moving out of Ukraine.

Before the war broke out, most of Ukraine’s grain went through ports on the Black Sea but use of these ports was severely hampered in the early days of the war, prompting the creation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), which facilitated the safe export of grain.

The initiative had helped to stabilize global markets and reduce spiking prices, according to the UN. It also allowed the World Food Programme to transport wheat to countries vulnerable to severe hunger.

But when the BSGI ended in July after Russia refused to extend the agreement, it reignited concerns in Ukraine and abroad.

Now, at least seven ships have used a potential new Black Sea corridor successfully, prompting hope for renewed, and hopefully increased, activity.

"It's amazing how they've managed to rearrange the infrastructure and still get that grain to port," says Carter.

On your table

Meanwhile, supply chain strains have even been felt by restaurateurs across the world, including in the U.S. like Myron Lewyckyj, owner of Chicago’s Tryzub Ukrainian Kitchen.

Lewyckyj said he’s faced “real difficulties” obtaining corn, millet, buckwheat and wheat vodka from Ukraine, but getting his hands on Ukrainian wheat vodka and buckwheat has been especially tough, he said.

“It's just not coming through,” Lewyckyj said. “Whereas we normally would just place our order every couple of weeks, there have been weeks and months at a time where none has been available.”

When possible, Lewyckyj is combatting shortages by purchasing larger batches of ingredients to create a cushion of inventory.

But not all the shortages in Ukraine are impacting U.S. restaurants in the same way.

Ron Kavral, manager of the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant in Manhattan, said he hasn’t had any disruptions obtaining buckwheat from Ukraine and multiple Ukrainian restaurants told ABC News they don’t purchase products from Ukraine at all anymore, with some establishments opting for local ingredients instead.

But, at least for Lewyckyj, there is an integrity and tradition he tries to maintain by using ingredients from Ukraine.

“There's a difference between the wheat that comes from Ukraine and the wheat that's grown in Kansas … And they're subtle differences, but we try to maintain that uniqueness, if possible,” Lewyckyj said.

For now though, the future for Ukrainian agriculture remains uncertain with attacks on port infrastructure a regular occurrence and talks between Ukraine and neighboring countries continue.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian farmers continue to press on and they’ll finish planting their next crops in just a few weeks.

“Don't underestimate the ability of these farms to be able to manage through a situation like this,” Michael Lee says.

ABC News' Yulia Drozd contributed to this report