“Analysts say that Russia’s inability to enforce a real blockade of Ukrainian ports may eventually push it to come back to a deal, as Ukrainian farmers remain the biggest losers from the lack of one”, writes The New Arab.
“Talks between Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday failed to achieve a breakthrough on reviving the Black Sea grain export deal brokered last year by Turkey and the UN.”
“The impact of the closure on world wheat and maize supplies is less than it was when the war broke out because world grain supplies are improved and unfortunately, Ukraine production has been reduced by about one third since the war began,” Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told The New Arab.
“The real losers continue to be Ukraine farmers as they must ship grain via more costly routes,” Glauber explained. These include overland routes through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, or through ports on the Danube bordering Romania.
“Russia’s continued aggression towards the Danube ports and Odesa continues to roil markets and creates uncertainty for future crop production in Ukraine,” he added.