08 Nov The Black Sea Grain Initiative

The Black Sea Grain Initiative

Details on the topic “The Black Sea Grain Initiative”

Relevance for Prelims: Recent initiatives in Global Arena, International groupings

Relevance for Mains: Global Supply Chain Initiative and associated issues

Context: Russia has recently joined the Black Sea Grain initiative which endeavors to tackle increased prices of grains because of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

About Black Sea Grain Initiative:

• The deal is brokered by the United Nations and Istanbul in July’22 to fight the escalating prices of food grains emanating from supply-chain disruptions from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• The deal is signed to provide a safe maritime humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian exports (specifically for food grains) from its key ports.
• The release of grains from Ukraine (the World’s breadbasket) will help ensure calm in markets, thereby limiting food inflation.

Need of this initiative:

1. Largest Exporter: Ukraine is among the largest exporters of wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, and sunflower oil in world.
2. Accessibility: It also has access to deep-sea ports in the Black Sea enabling it to directly reach Russia and Europe along with grain importers from West and Africa.
3. Russia’s Activity: Russia’s actions in the East European country had disturbed this route which earlier used to ship 75% of its agricultural exports — precisely what the initiative sought to address.

Significance of this initiative:

• The Food Price Index assessed by Food and Agricultural Organization fell for sixth consecutive time in a row during September.
• Around 1 million tonnes of grains have been shipped since the initiative commenced.
• More than 50% of the grains have been shipped to middle-income and lower-income countries ensuring equitable distribution.

According to the experts from the International Food Policy Research institute, notwithstanding its reach, the initiative in an isolated manner cannot address global hunger and can only delay the chances of global food hunger crisis.

About the Black Sea:

The Black Sea is located in the southeastern extremity of Europe. It is bordered by Ukraine to the north, Russia to the northeast, Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west.

                                                                                                 Pic: The Black Sea Grain

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Source: The Hindu 

Rishabh