No New Ship Is Allowed to Export Grain Across the Black Sea

Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations (UN) failed to reach an agreement during negotiations on Black Sea grain exports.

According to Reuters, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq stated that there had been no new authorizations for ships to export grain across the Black Sea. Additionally, he mentioned that previously authorized ships are undergoing daily inspections.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that the four parties held a technical meeting in Istanbul on the upcoming negotiations on the grain agreement.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense statement states that a preliminary coordination meeting with the UN, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey technical staff was held ahead of the Deputy Ministers of Defense meeting next week in Istanbul. The participants of the meeting agreed on the agenda of the meeting of deputy ministers with technical issues.

On July 22 last year, Ukraine concluded agreements for the export of food which involved countries extended for another 120 days in November.

In March of this year, Russian authorities announced the extension of the agreement for 60 days, warning that they would have enough time to assess the effectiveness of the memorandum signed with the UN.

That memorandum lifted restrictions on exporting Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to world markets. However, official Moscow notes that there is a need for implementation of the second part of the agreement.

Trade in agricultural products in the EU was worth 425 billion euros last year

The value of realized trade in agricultural products between the European Union and the rest of the world reached 424.7 billion euros in 2022, 77.5 billion euros more than in 2021, according to data from the EU Statistics Office (Eurostat).

Last year, the EU exported agricultural products worth 229.1 billion euros and imported 195.6 billion euros, which resulted in a surplus of 33.5 billion euros.

Between 2002 and 2022, the trade in agricultural products in the EU increased almost threefold, from 141.5 billion euros to 424.7 billion euros, representing an average annual growth of approximately 5.6 percent. During this time, exports outpaced imports, growing at a rate of 5.9 percent compared to 5.4 percent for imports.

Great Britain was the main export partner, with a share of 21 percent in the export of agricultural products outside the EU, corresponding to a value of 47.8 billion euros.