Faced with the threat of famine in Africa as a result of no wheat being exported from Ukraine, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres repeated his concerns of an impending food crisis. The UN had previously advocated the creation of “safe corridors” for shipping from the Ukrainian ports and across the Black Sea. Russia has said it would be
willing to help, but only if western sanctions against it were removed.
An additional problem would be finding the shipowners willing to risk their vessels for the trip, or the insurers willing to cover the risk.
Amin Awad, UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, confirmed that the organization was making “every effort” to achieve the release of grain that remains stuck in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi told Der Spiegel that “we have to overcome the blockade of our ports”. The minister noted that pre-invasion Ukraine had exported 95% of its grain through Odesa, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, and other seaports. Grain is currently being moved from Danube seaports and overland by train and truck, but the volume had fallen from between five and six million tons per month (carried by about 100 ships) to just
a few hundred thousand tons (carried by rail and truck).
Awad noted that rail or road transportation faced major logistical problems of scale. “It really has to be a maritime movement…to export 50 to 60 million tons of food out to the world.”
As part of a sequence of diplomatic meetings Martin Griffiths – the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator – and Rebeca Grynspan,Secretary-General of the UN Trade and Development agency, UNCTAD are working with financial institutions and the West in an attempt to resume the trade in grain and fertilizer. Awad said on June 3rd that the negotiations were continuing.“There (are) a lot of details and shuttling between Moscow and other
countries that have concerns and the negotiations continue. But there’s no clear-cut emerging solution right now because it’s a board of puzzles that have to move together.”
