Following recent events that briefly halted Ukraine’s food exports to African nations, the United States Agency for International Development has cautioned Nigeria and other African nations to prepare for higher food prices.
Isobel Coleman, the deputy administrator for policy and programming at USAID, revealed this during a virtual press conference on Thursday.
She claimed that the decision by Russia to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative has already started to raise food costs globally.
She pointed out that developing nations who were dependent on imports and had historically relied on grain imports from Ukraine would be disproportionately affected by this increase in food prices.
“Ukraine is one of the biggest breadbaskets in the world,” Coleman added. Russia is raising food costs worldwide by doing this. We have already witnessed how the Black Sea Grain Initiative reduced food costs globally over time. Food costs have risen once more as a result of Russia’s withdrawal from the deal.
“This affects every nation in the world, but it affects large, import-dependent developing nations the most acutely, as they must spend a significant portion of their limited foreign exchange resources to buy food to feed their populations.”
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was created expressly to permit commercial exports of food and fertilizer, including ammonia, from the three important Black Sea ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 completely ended Ukraine’s historical role as a significant grain exporter across the Black Sea. The issue was made worse by Russia’s temporary suspension of its grain exports.
As a result, there was an increase in the price of food globally, a threat of starvation in low-income nations like Nigeria, and allegations that Russia was turning food supplies into weapons.
The UN backed the consultations, which were hosted by Turkey (which governs the marine routes from the Black Sea) and started in April 2022. The final agreement was signed on July 22 in Istanbul and is effective for 120 days.
Following the initiative’s ratification, food costs started to drop after they had dramatically soared. The agreement ran out on July 17, 2023, but Russia declined to extend it, claiming that international sanctions were preventing it from exporting agricultural products.
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Coleman asserts that Russia’s departure from the project, which in theory forbade Ukraine from sending grain to Nigeria and other developing nations, would have disastrous effects on these nations’ ability to feed their people.
She said that thanks to the program, Ukraine was able to export 33 million metric tonnes of food, of which 65% went to developing nations and 20% to the least developed nations.
While Russia had pledged to cover the gap left by Ukraine’s inability to export its grain, USAID remained clear that the Kremlin, which was attempting to profit from a situation it had stoked, was neither prepared nor should be permitted to do so.
Coleman continued by saying that USAID was already preparing plans to look into different channels through which Ukraine may export its grain without the existing challenges posed by the traditional maritime route (the Black Sea).
She said that the US government has made large investments through its ‘Feed The Future’ program to strengthen developing nations’ resilience to food crises in the wake of the most recent food crisis, which rocked the world’s food security.
“We have investments in more than 40 countries throughout Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa,” she continued. We have 20 target nations that have high rates of hunger and poverty but also have the capacity to improve their food systems and spur economic growth.
Elizabeth McKee, an Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia who also spoke, characterized the situation as critical, particularly in light of Russia’s declaration that moving forward, any ship en route to Ukrainian ports will be treated as a military target.
She claimed that over the course of the previous nine days, the Russians had attacked 26 port facilities and infrastructure, five civilian vessels, and 180,000 tonnes of priceless grain crops.
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