Instead of poor African countries, most Ukrainian grain goes to Europe

In a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian grain should go primarily to countries that need it. However, according to him, this is not happening now and the bulk has landed in the Union Territory.

The AA Agency Putin has threatened to curb the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in July to ease a global food crisis. Since the first vessel under the agreement departed on August 1, more than 120 vessels have transported 2.5 million tons of agricultural products through the grain corridor.

In today’s phone conversation, the Russian president accused Europe of taking all the exported food. According to the UN, about 30 percent went to low- and middle-income countries. Guterres told a news conference in New York that during his call with Putin on Wednesday morning, he discussed expanding the scope of the agreement, including renewing Russian fertilizer exports through the same channel.

If fertilizer markets are not reformed, we will face problems in 2023.

Antonio Gutierrez said.

The United States and its allies have imposed a series of economic sanctions on Russia in response to its seven-month war against Ukraine. However, Washington has repeatedly said its sanctions will not affect Russian fertilizer exports.

According to AFP, however, Putin may be at least partly right. According to data provided to AFP on Wednesday by the Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center (JCC), which oversees Ukrainian grain contracts, more than a hundred ships have carried 2,334,310 from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivtenny since the beginning of August. tons of grains and other agricultural products.

The main destination countries are Turkey (20%), Spain (15%), Egypt (10%), China (7%) and Italy (7%). European countries represent 36 percent of the total and African countries 17 percent. “30 percent of the cargo went to low- and middle-income countries,” the JCC found.

However, according to analysts, a significant portion of the grain supplied to Turkey is re-exported, particularly to the Middle East and North Africa.