Ukraine's Ukrlandfarming says war has caused major losses

 Ukraine's leading agricultural group, Ukrlandfarming, said on Tuesday Russia's invasion had caused it losses totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, mainly because of the loss of access to land and the destruction of farms, reported Reuters.

Ukrlandfarming, which produces grain, meat, eggs and sugar, said in a statement that it had lost control of 40% of its land portfolio. The territory had either been occupied by Russian forces or was located in areas where sowing was impossible because of fighting, it said.

It underlined the loss of access to over 100,000 hectares in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine and to 6,500 hectares in the eastern region of Luhansk, territory that is part of its total land bank of 500,000 hectares.

Ukrlandfarming blamed Russian forces for the deaths of 4 million adult laying hens and some 700,000 young pullets at the Chornobayivska poultry farm near Kherson, Europe's largest. It accused them of ruining other farms in the Kyiv region and also a grain elevator in the Zhytomyr region west of the capital.

"Ukrlandfarming … is suffering losses measured in the hundreds of millions of US dollars inflicted through the criminal actions of the occupiers," said the group, which has a London-listed offshoot called AvangardCo.

Russia did not immediately comment on Ukrlandarming's statement.

Ukraine, one of the world's biggest grain exporters, has sown about 7 million hectares of spring crops so far this year, or 25-30% less than in the corresponding period of 2021, Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Monday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the problem of global food security could not be solved without restoring Ukrainian agricultural production to the world market.