Ukraine's farmers pin hopes on export corridor as war cost mounts

FILE PHOTO: An agricultural worker operates a combine during a wheat harvesting in a field, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 14, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

KYIV/PARIS (Reuters) - Ukraine's efforts to revive sea exports in defiance of Russia's military blockade have given a glimmer of hope to a teetering farm sector in which loss-making producers are abandoning some land in one of the world's biggest grain belts.

With no end in sight to the war with Russia, access to the Black Sea is critical if Ukraine is to preserve an agricultural industry that was the fourth-largest grain supplier globally before the conflict and in value terms accounted for half of Ukraine's total exports last year.