Ukraine’s breadbasket is (almost) open for business again (Foreign Policy) 

Foreign Policy published an article that discussed the plans for grain to begin shipping out of the Black Sea port in Ukraine. Whether Ukraine can safely export its grain has significant consequences for global food markets. Ukraine supplies more than 40 percent of the world’s sunflower oil, nearly 20 percent of the world’s corn exports, and 10 percent of the global wheat export supply—much of which has been trapped in the country’s siloes due to the Russian blockade. The tenuous grain shipments deal, which Russia and Ukraine agreed to late last week in talks brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, represents the first diplomatic breakthrough in the five-month-long war. According to IFPRI, if successful, the agreement is also expected to ease pressure on Ukrainian farmers, many of whom were receiving unusually low prices for their crops and were on the brink of bankruptcy. Senior research fellow Joseph Glauber said, “This has been one of the big problems since the beginning of the war.” Glauber added, “There’s just still incredible uncertainty. You are in the middle of a war,” Glauber said. “The real question to me is whether or not shipping companies are going to feel comfortable moving in there.”