Russia Pursues New Grain Export Routes Following Termination of Black Sea Deal, Says Deputy Foreign Minister

Russia Pursues New Grain Export Routes Following Termination of Black Sea Deal, Says Deputy FM

Ira Singh
23July’23

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Vershinin, announced on Friday that the country is actively working on establishing new grain export routes in the aftermath of the termination of the Black Sea deal. This move comes in response to recent geopolitical developments that have impacted the region’s grain trade and highlights Russia’s determination to secure alternative pathways for its crucial agricultural exports.

Russia warned that ships sailing to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports from Thursday will be seen as potential military targets, days after its withdrawal from a safe-passage deal that threatens to worsen global food supplies, as per media reports.

Ukraine said on Wednesday it was establishing a temporary shipping route via Romania, one of the neighbouring Black Sea countries.

“Its goal is to facilitate the unblocking of international shipping in the north- western part of the Black Sea,” Vasyl Shkurakov, Ukraine’s acting minister for communities, territories and infrastructure development, said in a letter to U.N. shipping agency, the International Shipping Organization.

Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s top grain exporters. U.S. wheat futures jumped 8.5% on Wednesday, their biggest daily gain since days after Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine.

The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, aimed to help prevent a global food crisis by allowing grain blocked by the war in Ukraine to be safely exported from Black Sea ports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries of “perverting” the U.N.-backed deal formally called the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said Russia’s exit from the deal threatens to worsen global food insecurity and could increase food prices, especially in poor countries, according to sources.

Putin said Russia would immediately return to the pact if all its conditions for doing so were met for rules to be eased for its own exports of food and fertiliser, as per media reports. Western countries call that an attempt to use leverage over food supplies to force a weakening in financial sanctions, which still allow Russia to sell food.