The Ukrainian Red Cross Society has delivered the first 57 grain storage sleeves to three agricultural enterprises in Ukraine's Sumy region under a United Nations-backed program to keep this year's harvest from going to waste.
The sleeves will provide temporary storage for almost 10,000 tonnes of grain, the Red Cross said Monday in a Facebook post reported by Interfax-Ukraine. In all, the program calls for 1,516 sleeves for 257 agricultural producers in the Sumy and Donetsk regions, reaching 48 communities in nine districts, according to the agency's account of the post.
The deliveries are part of a program launched Aug. 31 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Food Programme, Mercy Corps and the Red Cross, working with Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food. Mercy Corps has since renamed itself Prosper Global.
The storage math explains the urgency. Ukraine's 2026-27 grain and oilseed crop is forecast at 84.18 million tonnes, about 6% above last year, while effective storage capacity is estimated at 58.97 million tonnes after war-related damage, FAO said in its program launch release
Each sleeve is a large, flexible plastic bag that holds about 200 tonnes of grain and can be laid out directly on the farm. The sleeves are free to eligible grain and oilseed producers in nine oblasts.
Without storage, farmers are pushed to sell early into weak farm-gate prices, which cuts the money available for seed, fertilizer and fuel for the next season, FAO said.
"Every tonne of grain that farmers can preserve is the result of their work and an investment in the next agricultural season," said Taras Vysotskyi, Ukraine's minister of agrarian policy and food.
Since 2022, FAO and its partners have helped add about 8.3 million tonnes of farm-level storage in Ukraine, including more than 37,000 grain sleeves and 958 modular storage units. The current program is funded by the U.S. State Department, the government of Canada, the European Union and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
FAO has said needs are expected to exceed available resources and has called on additional donors to help expand the program.
