"Russia Diverts Wheat from Occupied Ukrainian Territories... Estimated at 1.3 Trillion Won"

NASA Harvest Analyzes Satellite Images
Occupies One-Quarter of Ukraine's Wheat Fields, Taking 6 Million Tons

The vast wheat fields of Ukraine, known as the "breadbasket of Europe." Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] It has been announced that Russian forces appear to have swept away at least 1 billion dollars (about 1.3 trillion won) worth of wheat from occupied areas in Ukraine.

According to major foreign media, NASA Harvest, a food security and agriculture program under the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), analyzed satellite images to reach this conclusion. The wheat cultivation areas occupied by Russian forces account for about one-quarter of Ukraine's total wheat fields, and the Russian military harvested approximately 6 million tons of wheat from these occupied fields.

NASA Harvest stated that while it is possible that Russia exported the wheat harvested from Ukrainian occupied territories to countries such as Iran or Libya, there is no way to verify this, so it is unknown to which countries and in what quantities Ukrainian wheat was exported.

In this regard, Switzerland, a hub country for global commodity trade, warned that "trading in looted raw materials constitutes a war crime."

This year, Ukraine's wheat harvest reached 26.6 million tons, several million tons more than initially expected. In early February, at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, food security experts were concerned whether Ukrainian farmers would be able to properly harvest the wheat and barley sown last autumn, and worried that a decrease in grain exports from Ukraine, the world's sixth-largest wheat exporter, could disrupt the global grain market and cause food shortages.

In May, the British Guardian also reported based on satellite image analysis that Ukraine's wheat production this year was expected to be 21 million tons, which would represent a 23% decrease compared to the average of the past five years and a 35% decrease compared to last year.

NASA Harvest announced, "Although this is a decrease from Ukraine's record wheat harvest of 33 million tons last year, this year's wheat production in Ukraine is not significantly different from the five-year average of 27.9 million tons," adding, "Our satellite-based production figures suggest that Ukraine's wheat was generally successfully harvested this year." However, wheat produced in frontline areas could not be harvested due to the war.

Currently, wheat prices on the international market are stable. The wheat futures price on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) surged after Russia's invasion of Ukraine but has now fallen back to pre-war levels.