Kyiv’s Quiet Power: Leveraging Food Diplomacy

Ukraine’s agricultural strength could prove to be a winning asset in building ties with the Gulf countries, now at risk of food shortages due to the war with Iran. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied A combine harvests wheat near Kramatorsk, in Donetsk region on August 4, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google With American and European eyes focused on the war in the Middle East, Ukraine has been swift to spot the opportunities. The attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbors highlighted the region’s fragility and the need for support of the kind that Ukraine is well placed to provide. Now is the time for the EU and others to ensure that Ukraine has the ability to make an even bigger contribution. Ukraine’s hard-won expertise in countering Iranian-made drones, used by Moscow, is in demand. It is no surprise, then, that Gulf states are looking to Kyiv for lessons in air defense, electronic warfare, and rapid battlefield adaptation. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . But war is not just waged on the battlefield with weapons and defense systems. Another lesson Iran has learned from Russia is the leverage that can be applied by inflicting economic pain. The ability of Gulf nations to survive the Iranian counterpunch depends as much as on continuing to access reliable food and water as on improving their military capabilities. While drones dominate headlines, water scarcity is the Gulf’s defining long-term vulnerability. And here, Ukraine holds a different kind of strategic asset: agriculture. The scope for expanding ties between Ukraine and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries like United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, is considerable. Ukraine currently exports roughly $650-800 million annually to the region. That sounds respectable until you consider the bigger picture: Ukraine’s total exports hover around $41-42 billion. The Gulf accounts for just 1.5-2% of that total. Other Topics of Interest Trump’s Advisers Push to Limit Media Outbursts Amid Global Talks Concerns within the White House are mounting as the president’s spontaneous interviews and calls to journalists create friction with allies and complicate sensitive talks with Iran. In other words, this is a relationship still in its infancy. Yet the foundations are promising. Exports to the UAE alone reached about $267 million in 2024, while Saudi Arabia imported roughly $368 million worth of Ukrainian goods. Growth is accelerating too, with exports to the UAE rising by more than 20% last year. The key is what Ukraine is already good at: feeding the world. Ukraine is one of the planet’s great agricultural powerhouses. Its fertile black soil and industrial-scale farming operations produce vast quantities of wheat, corn, barley, and sunflower oil, accounting for as much as 50% of global oilseeds production and 10% of wheat. Even during wartime, Ukrainian farmers have managed to sustain exports under extraordinary conditions. That resilience is not just impressive, it is marketable. Ukraine can provide a solution to a constraint in the Gulf that no amount of oil wealth can solve: water. Agriculture in arid Gulf climates is extraordinarily resource-intensive. Producing grain and other staple crops requires enormous amounts of water, which can only be supplied by expensive and energy-heavy desalination. In some cases, countries have already scaled back local farming precisely because it is unsustainable. Importing grain from Ukraine where water literally falls from the sky, is, in effect, importing cheap and abundant virtual water. Every ton of wheat shipped from the Black Sea represents thousands of liters of water that Gulf countries do not need to extract, desalinate, or deplete from fragile aquifers. In a region where water scarcity is existential, that matters. The belief in what Ukrainian agriculture can export is one of the reasons why Diligent Capital Partners, a Kyiv-based venture capital company, has joined with Dutch 2ndAries Capital, to launch a €150 million ($173.2 million) fund to finance businesses in the sector. Food4Impact is an initiative to inject private sector finance into such companies and help to secure global supply chains and is supported by the European Commission under the Ukraine Investment Facility. But that is only a small proportion of what is needed. The international community must do more to increase the availability of such funding. It is even more of a necessity in the circumstances that the world is now confronting, and the ripple effects would go far beyond Ukraine or the Gulf: increased Ukrainian exports would need more machinery to be bought from the EU to support the trade. A circle of investment which would also bring benefits to the EU, and with this deepening of trade partnerships, paving the way for full Ukrainian membership in the EU over time. There are three important actions that could be taken now to ensure such an initiative succeeds: Increasing export capacity from Ukraine would also produce a geopolitical dividend. Gulf states are actively diversifying their economic and strategic partnerships. Strengthening ties with Ukraine allows them to hedge against overreliance on traditional suppliers while gaining access to a country that has proven its adaptability under pressure. For Ukraine, the benefits are equally compelling. Expanding agricultural exports to the Gulf would provide stable demand, hard currency earnings, and deeper integration into Middle Eastern supply chains. This is how a 2% export share becomes something far more significant. Imagine a framework in which Ukraine provides defense expertise to help protect Gulf infrastructure, while simultaneously becoming a cornerstone of the region’s food security. One safeguards the present; the other secures the future. Ukrainian Drones may win battles, but grain can build long term alliances. The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post. Idsert Boersma is co-founder of Dutch investment firm 2ndAries and a prime mover, with Diligent Capital Partners, behind the creation of the Euro150m Ukrainian Food4impact fund, a European Commission-backed initiative that will rapidly provide financing to companies critical to Ukraine’s food production and exports. A seasoned investment professional, Idsert has over 25 years’ experience in development and impact investment across emerging markets, spanning both the private and public sectors. This includes more than 15 years at FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank