(OCHA/Saviano Abreu) The M/V Razoni sails from the port of Odesa following the authorization of the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), established under the Black Sea Grain Initiative Aug 10, 2022)

By  Gary  Raynaldo        DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED  NATIONS   –   NEW   YORK   –   The UN’s Black Sea Grain Initiative has helped “calm” global food markets with a significant reduction in prices reported.  Rebeca Grynspan, Coordinator of the task team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy, said the effort  has helped avert a global food crisis.  Grynspan, who is leading the UN Task Team on facilitating the unimpeded access to food and fertilizer from the Russian Federation, told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday that global food prices are beginning to stabilize.  She noted that world food prices have fallen for a fifth consecutive month on the back of Ukraine exports but prices remain nearly eight percent higher than last year.  A big factor in lower food prices is the  resumption of exports from the Black Sea ports in Ukraine for the first time in more than five months of interruption. 

“We wanted to calm markets by making food affordable during this time. Prices came down significantly. This is the fifth month in a row that international prices have come down. It has eased the pain for the 1.6 billion people in the world impacted by the global food crisis,” Grynspan said.

The latest report the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released last week, of its Food Price Index,  shows that the prices of five commodities – cereals, vegetable oil, dairy, meat and sugar – were lower in August than in July.  The decline in cereal prices reflected improved production prospects in North America and Russia, and the resumption of exports from Black Sea ports in Ukraine.

Also attending the hyprid press briefing was Amir Abdulla, the UN Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Grynspan briefed reporters from Geneva while Abdulla from Ankara.  Since the start of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,  the UN has been actively engaged in delivering humanitarian support to the people in Ukraine, the people who are paying the highest price, and to the host countries of the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.  The UN notes that less attention has been paid to the global impact of the war in all its dimensions in a world already witnessing increased poverty, hunger and social unrest. The UN said the war is supercharging a three-dimensional crisis — food, energy and finance — that is pummeling some of the world’s most vulnerable people, countries and economies.

According to the UN  as many as 1.6 billion people — one-third of whom are already living in poverty — are now highly exposed to disruptions in food, energy and finance systems that are triggering increases in poverty and hunger.

(Photo: By Gary Raynaldo /©Diplomatic Times)  Amir Abdulla, (left) the UN Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative,  and Rebeca Grynspan, Coordinator of the task team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy, brief reporters at UN headquarters in New York Sept. 13, 2022, Abdulla  briefed reporters from Ankara,  while Grynspan from  Geneva. 

Thirty-six countries count on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports — including some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries of  the world.

(Photo: By Gary Raynaldo /©Diplomatic Times)  Amir Abdulla, (left) the UN Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative,  and Rebeca Grynspan, Coordinator of the task team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy, via video,  brief reporters at UN headquarters in New York Sept. 13, 2022.  Abdulla  briefed the journalists  from Ankara,  while Grynspan from  Geneva.

Black Sea Grain Initiative

The initiative was dubbed a “beacon of hope” by UN Secretary-General António Guterres when it was signed in Istanbul, Turkey, on 22 July 2022. Subsequently, a newly established Joint Coordination Centre was established to allow for significant volumes of commercial food exports to depart from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, and paved the way for the first shipment to leave the port of Odesa on 1 August. The UN plan, which also paves the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets, will help to stabilize spiralling food prices worldwide and stave off famine, affecting millions.

The initiative specifically allows for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny.

First  UN Ship Carrying Food From UKRAINE Arrives In Horn Of AFRICA Amid Famine

A UN-chartered ship loaded with 23,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat destined for millions of hungry people in Ethiopia docked in neighbouring Djibouti Aug. 30, 2022. (Credit WFP)

On August 31,  the first maritime shipment of Ukrainian wheat grain from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) arrived  at the Horn of Africa port of Djibouti to help prevent starvation in the region.  The vessel ‘Brave Commander’ left Ukraine’s Yuzhny (Pivdennyi) Port August 16 as part of efforts by the WFP to get much needed Ukrainian grain out of the conflict-hit country, back into global markets, and to countries worst affected by the global food crisis. The shipment of 23,000 metric tons of wheat grain will go to WFP’s humanitarian response in the Horn of Africa where the threat of famine stalks the drought-hit region.