UN Says Working to Get Russian Food to Markets

The United Nations is working with the United States and European Union to overcome obstacles to Russian food and fertilisers reaching world markets, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

“Without fertilizer in 2022, there may not be enough food in 2023. Getting more food and fertilizer out of Ukraine and Russia is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers,” Guterres said on Saturday during a visit to Istanbul, where he visited a coordination center overseeing the exports, Aljazeera reported.

While more than 650,000 tons of grain and other food have left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports since a UN-brokered export deal was agreed in Turkey last month, Guterres said Russian produce was also crucial.

“The other part of this package deal is the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food and fertilizer,” Guterres said.

Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine do not apply to food and fertilizers, but they have, nonetheless, had a chilling effect on exports.

Guterres said the UN was working with Washington and the EU to remove a number of obstacles, including to shipping, insurance and finance.

Russia and Ukraine accounted for around a third of global wheat exports before Russia’s February 24 invasion, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”. Russia is also a major exporter of fertilizer.

Guterres travelled to Ukraine this week to meet the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the western city of Lviv.