Associated Press Archive posted a video interview with Senior research fellow Joseph Glauber of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Glauber spoke about Russia’s suspension of its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative. He said “that re-opening the three ports is key because traditionally those ports had accounted for about 50 percent of exports coming out of the Black Sea region. As we watched this over the past 2-3 months, they were sending out about 3 million tons per month (far below what is traditionally shipped out at this time in previous years, but above what was going out prior to the agreement). Global markets are tight. The agreement means that the ships parked there and ready to leave could. The question is, will any new ships come in and load? I believe the answer is no. Insurance will be costly and cost-prohibitive. It could shut down the shipping of foodstuffs coming out of there. Hopefully, it won’t. It’s been tenuous from the beginning. You’re having this talk of a truce for food while a war is going on. We should be thankful that we got about three months out of it, we might see it continue. The world needs the grain. We might see in developed countries more inflation, but for poorer countries, it’s a much bigger deal.”
