UN Works to Unblock Russia, Ukraine Food, Fertilizer Exports

The United Nations (UN) on Saturday issued a fresh alert to push to secure food and fertilizer exports from Ukraine and Russia, to the wider world, amid rising and alarming levels of food insecurity.

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Amin Awad, UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, confirmed the Organization was making every effort to secure the release of grain stuck in Ukraine´s Black Sea ports.

Equally important for the world’s farmers is a secure supply of fertilizers from Russia, a world’s major producer, as some 1.5 billion people are in need of that food and fertilizers, a supply that has been disrupted by the Ukrainian conflict.

Mr. Award assured that leading the discussions are top UN officials Martin Griffiths – the Organization’s Emergency relief Coordinator- and Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD.

Highlighting the difficulties closely linked to international trade with Russia even though there are no sanctions on food and fertilizer humanitarian exports from the country, Mr. Awad explained Ms. Grynspan was working with other financial institutions and the West in general to see how Russia can really, as far as transactions are concerned, resume.

“The five million tonnes a month, that’s 100 ships a month,” said Mr. Awad, adding that rail transportation or trucking, could not manage the same volume and were fraught with logistical problems. “So, is really has to be a maritime movement…to export 50 to 60 million tonnes of food out to the world.”

Around 1.5 billion people “are in need of that food and fertilizers” around the world, the UN official explained, adding that he hoped that the negotiations “really go smoothly and be concluded as soon as possible so that the blockade of ports and the resumption of export of fertilizer and food takes place, before we have another crisis in hand.”