By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia has not offered the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) any free grain, WFP deputy chief Carl Skau said on Friday, nearly two weeks after Moscow quit a deal that allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain.
Ukrainian grain is a primary U.N. food aid source.
“We have not been in talks about any free grain so far,” Skau told reporters. “We have not been approached for any such discussion.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told African leaders at a summit in St Petersburg that Moscow is able to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa and that he would gift tens of thousands of tons of grain to six countries within months.
Ukraine, along with Russia, is one of the world’s biggest exporters of grain and any interruption could drive up food prices around the globe.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that a “handful of donations” won’t correct the dramatic impact of the end of the Black Sea grain deal.
Under the Black Sea export pact, the WFP purchased and shipped 725,000 tonnes of grain to Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen over the past year. The pact has allowed WFP so far to procure 80% of its wheat grain purchases this year from Ukraine, up from 50% in 2021 and 2022.
Overall, nearly 33 million tonnes of grain were exported by Ukraine under the deal, which aimed to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“For our operations the impact will be that we have to look elsewhere, which potentially can be more costly and certainly will have longer lead ways,” Skau said. “One of the reasons why Ukraine has been such an important source for us is the proximity to many of our operations.”
Global wheat prices have spiked about 9% since Russia on July 17 quit the pact, which was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July 2022, and began targeting Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure on the Black Sea and Danube River. Prices are still about half the record high hit in early March 2022.
“In terms of our procurement we always buy where it’s cheapest and fastest to get to our beneficiaries, and so that’s the principle that will guide us,” Skau said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Leslie Adler)
