This agreement has enabled the export of nearly 25 million tonnes of cereals from Russia and Ukraine since its signing in July 2022.
“The world depends on these supplies”. The head of the United Nations humanitarian agency (Ocha), Martin Griffiths, was clear on Friday March 17, on the eve of the Moscow agreement on the 60-day extension of the grain export agreement Ukrainians. This agreement, signed in July 2022 under the auspices of the UN and Turkey, and called the “Black Sea Grain Initiative”, makes it possible, despite the war between Russia and Ukraine, to supply a large part of of the world in cereals and fertilizers, the two countries “being the main suppliers of these products on world markets”, greet the United Nations in a press release, Saturday, March 18. On the same day, the spokesman for the Secretary General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, welcomed an agreement “essential for global food security, especially for developing countries”. Here’s why.
Because it allows the circulation of vital foodstuffs in the Black Sea
Concretely, the agreement sets up “secure corridors” for maritime traffic in the Black Sea, to allow the movement of merchant ships. It submits kyiv and Moscow to a commitment of non-aggression of these boats transporting cereals and fertilizers for the duration of the agreement. Moscow and kyiv on Saturday agreed to a renewal for a period of 60 days. “This will allow the world to get even more Ukrainian agricultural products. We also continue to work to add ports in the Mykolaiv region to the Grain Initiative and expand the range of goods,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook on the day of the extension.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative has enabled nearly 25 million tonnes of goods to be exported from Ukrainian ports since July, details the Initiative’s website (in English)including 50% corn, 27% wheat and 5% sunflower oil.
Because it helps to contain the rise in the prices of certain essential foodstuffs
If the Initiative is beneficial for the access of many people to basic food products, it is because it contributes “to stabilize world food prices which were already at record levels even before the war – a real nightmare for developing countries”, exposed the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on July 22, 2022.
One of the consequences of the war in Ukraine is indeed a surge in the prices of certain cereals such as wheat, mechanically causing a rise in several products (bread, flour, etc.) derived from this cereal. “Wheat prices at the world level have taken between 100 and 150 dollars per ton” since the beginning of the war, estimated the professor of economic history Philippe Chalmin on franceinfo on June 6, 2022.
“Fertilizer prices are currently two to three times higher than before Covid-19,” for her part, assessed the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), Rebeca Grynspan, in a column published in The worldMarch 14.
But the implementation of the agreement “obviously succeeded in driving down the prices”however, noted the UN last October, welcoming “because the prices [avaient] fallen for five consecutive months: the food price index has fallen by almost 14% since the peak in March [2022]“.
Because it must respond (in part) to the world food crisis
On the day of the conclusion of the agreement, July 22, Antonio Guterres also welcomed the fact that the Initiative “would bring relief to developing countries on the brink of bankruptcy and the most vulnerable people on the brink of starvation”. In the aftermath of the outbreak of the conflict, the United Nations feared the “collapse of the global food system”, including, for example, 19 countries on the African continent that are 100% dependent on Russian or Ukrainian wheat. In October, the World Food Program (WFP) warned of the rise, “from 282 million to 345 million in the first months of 2022”, the number of hungry people in the world.
Among the Russian and Ukrainian exports allowed by the agreement despite the conflict, a third goes to developing countries, directly threatened by food shortages. “These food supplies (…) have reached 43 countries since August” And “pAlmost 44% of exported wheat was shipped to low- and middle-income countries, 64% of which went to developing economies”, detailed the UN in January, stating that the WFP “bought [en 2022] 8% of the total wheat exported thanks to this agreement, to support its humanitarian operations in regions of the world affected by hunger”.