International efforts to extend the Ukrainian grain agreement | Gulf newspaper

United Nations – Reuters

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, told the Security Council on Friday that the organization was doing “everything in its power” to ensure the continuation of the grain agreement that allows the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

He added that “good progress” had been made on another UN pledge to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports, “but obstacles remain, particularly with regard to payment systems.” fully implement them.

The United Nations and Turkey mediated the agreement between Russia and Ukraine last July, to confront a global food crisis, one of the causes of which was the outbreak of the Ukraine war on February 24, 2022. The agreement was extended in November.

On Friday, the Kremlin said that Russia would extend the work of the agreement by 60 days. However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal said that his country insists on extending it for a period of 120 days. Work ends by agreement Saturday.

According to the United Nations, Ukraine has so far exported nearly 25 million tons of grain, mostly corn and wheat, under the agreement. The main destinations for the shipments were China, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands.

Before the war, Ukraine was the fourth largest exporter of corn and the fifth largest supplier of wheat in the world. It mainly supplies poor countries in Africa and the Middle East that depend on grain imports.