Before the full-scale invasion on February 24th, Ukraine had been shipping buckwheat to various customers in Europe and Asia. Now, with Russia’s continuous shelling of Ukraine’s grain fields and its occupation of some of Ukraine’s agricultural land, a large percentage of Ukraine’s expected harvest is being destroyed. In response to these dire developments, the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada asked the Canada-Ukraine Foundation to purchase and ship the Canadian buckwheat seeds to Ukraine since their resources are limited. FYK Soba Inc. in Manitoba, a specialist in the production of premium buckwheat, generously redirected 140 metric tons of buckwheat seeds to aid Ukraine. Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal then purchased and made arrangements to transport 7 containers by sea to Germany and then on to Ukraine.
Despite the late delivery of buckwheat seeds and the fact that sowing took place only last month, a wide distribution of farmers throughout Ukraine already see initial results – buckwheat seeds have started germinating across Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsk, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions. Overall, 70 farmers in Ukraine partook in sowing this Canadian buckwheat and the expected yield is 3,000 m/t of processed buckwheat groats. This shipment of buckwheat seeds came with personalized care from Don Fyk, the president of FYK Soba Inc., who was in direct contact with Serhiy Hromovyi, the Executive Director of the International Buckwheat Association of Ukraine, about the type of seeds being shipped and the proper care they require to give the highest yield – a true Canadian-Ukrainian partnership.
Thanks to your generous support and commitment, Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal is able to continue its critical mission of providing aid and assistance to Ukraine, including this effort to enable farmers in Ukraine do what they do best – grow the grain they know.
Background
The Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has been established jointly by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF) to formalize a coordinated approach in providing humanitarian assistance quickly and efficiently to those in need in Ukraine to address any further aggression by Russia. The main efforts of cooperation are to provide humanitarian assistance/relief in the areas of assistance to displaced persons, medical care, emergency shelter and food security.