Falling global food and fuel costs offer poor countries little relief (Star Tribune) 

Star Tribune published an article stating that costs are down from their peaks at the beginning of the Ukraine war but are still up compared to last year. Russia’s Feb. 24 attack on Ukraine sent a shockwave through commodity markets. The outlook for wheat prices became especially cloudy in the first months of the war after Russia stopped its routine reporting of export data to the United Nations’ Comtrade database, according to Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow. “They’re showing about the same level of exports from Russia this year as last year,” he said. “Russian trade is on track.” Those higher-than-anticipated Russian exports are one reason wheat prices are down. The deal reached last month by Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish diplomats, which facilitated shipments of some of the 20 million tons of grain trapped in Ukraine by the war, is another reason.