The efforts to renew the “Black Sea Grain Initiative” after the Russian Federation exit from the agreement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Moscow held negotiations with Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov. At a joint press conference, Fidan said that with the support of Turkey, the UN prepared a new package of proposals for the “grain corridor”, which will be the basis for the resumption of this cereal initiative.
The new UN proposals package implies a retication of the Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT system and the defrosting of the assets of Russian companies in Europe.
While Turkey continues its diplomatic efforts to renew the Black Sea grain initiative in coordination with the UN, other formulas made as an alternative to an agreement create problems in terms of security and costs.
insufficient amount of grain products can cause a price crisis
Russia is not satisfied with the transportation of grain according to the corridor created under the agreement, as it believes that products are delivered to developed countries. Moscow proposes to send 1 million tons of grain to Turkey, which, with the financial support of Qatar, will be processed in this country and delivered to the least developed countries.
However, compared with the volume of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows you to export about 33 million tons of grain per year, the grain volume proposed by Russia remains much lower than the needs.
The absence of a sufficient amount of grain carries the danger to cause a rapid increase in market prices and provoke a global crisis.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative has become a major operation to ensure world food security and the stability of world food prices.
In fact, when the grain initiative is resumed, there will be a shipment of 220 thousand tons of grain from Ukrainian ports.
The risk of expanding the conflict zone in the Black Sea
After Russia’s withdrawal from the agreement, Ukraine made a proposal to export grain through the territories of Romania.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict reaches the boundaries with Romania, where the Odessa region is located, and the Danube River from time to time becomes an arena of clashes and bombing.
Russia stated that after the end of the grain transaction, all ships that will follow from the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be considered as potential military carriers and will become an object of attacks. In addition, the countries to which these ships will belong to, Russia will perceive as participants in the conflict.
In such circumstances, there are fears of the expansion of the conflict zone in the Black Sea region, where other countries will be drawn.
In addition to security problems, other routes compared to the Black Sea Grain initiative will cost much expensive. And a sudden increase in transport costs can lead to an increase in grain prices in world markets.