“The sharp rise in grain prices following Russia’s withdrawal from a deal to export Ukraine’s grain across the Black Sea has the potential to threaten millions of people with starvation and worse,” said United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths on Friday.
Russia announced its withdrawal from the agreement to export grain across the Black Sea on Monday, saying that its demands for subsidies for its exports of food and fertilizers had not been met, and criticized the lack of sufficient quantities of Ukrainian grain to reach the poor countries.
US wheat futures on the Chicago Stock Exchange rose more than six percent this week and achieved their biggest daily gains on Wednesday since the start of the Ukraine crisis, but some of those gains were pared on Friday by hopes that Russia would resume talks on the deal.
“The sharp price hike will be felt by families in developing countries,” Griffiths told the UN Security Council, adding that 362 million people in 69 countries currently need humanitarian assistance.
“Some will go hungry, some will starve, and many may die as a result of these decisions,” he added.
The United Nations and Turkey brokered the agreement last year in an effort to address the global food crisis, which worsened after the Ukraine crisis. Ukraine and Russia are the largest grain exporters.
The United Nations said the Black Sea agreement had benefited poor countries by helping to reduce food prices by more than 23 percent around the world. The United Nations World Food Program has transported 725,000 tons of Ukrainian grain as part of relief operations in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
But Mikhail Khan, a macroeconomist asked by Russia to address the Security Council, said the poorest countries received only 3 percent of grain.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next month.
Turkish television stations quoted Erdogan as saying, today, Friday, that these talks may lead to the return of the grain export agreement through the Black Sea, calling on Western countries to consider Russia’s demands.
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