A Ukrainian grain ship set sail for Lebanon on Monday, the first to leave the Black Sea port of Odessa since Russia invaded Ukraine five months ago, under a safe passage deal that has been hailed as a light of hope in the face of a deepening global food crisis.
The exit was made possible after Turkey and the United Nations negotiated a grain and fertilizer export pact between Russia and Ukraine last month, a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has turned into a protracted war of attrition.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 has caused a global food and energy crisis and the United Nations has warned of the risk of multiple famines this year.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hoped Tuesday’s outing would be the first of many of its kind and that the UN would charter a ship to replenish aid supplies.
“People on the brink of famine need these deals to work, in order to survive,” Guterres told reporters in New York. “Countries on the brink of bankruptcy need these deals to work, to keep their economies alive.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called it a “day of relief for the world, especially our friends from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.”
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not as optimistic as his foreign minister, saying it was “too early” to celebrate the resumption of shipments.
“At the moment, it is too early to draw conclusions and make predictions,” he said in his daily video address. “Let’s wait to see how the agreement will work and if security will really be guaranteed,” he added.
What does Ukraine export?
The ship that left this Monday carries 26,527 tons of corn. Ukraine and Russia are the world’s leading grain suppliers, accounting for almost a third of world wheat exports between them.
The agreement is intended to allow safe passage of grain shipments in and out of Odessa and nearby Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi.
For Gautier Le Molgat, an analyst at Agritel, “it is a positive sign” because it will “reassure” world markets and importing countries. Wheat and corn prices in Chicago fell on Monday amid hopes Ukraine’s grain exports could resume on a large scale.
“But it is not a large ship,” he told the AFP agency, estimating that Ukraine will not export large quantities at this stage.
Before the conflict, 90% of deliveries of wheat, corn and sunflowers from Ukraine were made by sea and most of them through the port of Odessa, which represents 60% of the country’s port activity.
Ukraine is the fifth largest exporter of wheat, accounting for 7% of global sales in 2019. Considered the breadbasket of Europe, 71% of Ukraine’s land is agricultural. It is also home to a quarter of the world’s “black soil,” or chernozem, which is highly fertile.
Before the Razoni’s departure, Ukrainian presidential officials had said that 17 ships were docked in Black Sea ports with nearly 600,000 tons of cargo, mostly grain. Countries expressed their hope that more can now come out.
Where do the grains of Ukraine go?
The Razoni ship, with the flag of Sierra Leone, will go to the port of Tripoli, in Lebanon, after crossing the Bosphorus Strait, which joins the Black Sea, dominated by the Russian navy, with the Mediterranean.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the ship would anchor off Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon and be inspected by a joint team of Russian, Ukrainian, United Nations and Turkish representatives.
“Then it will continue as long as no problems arise,” Akar said.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Observatory of Economic Complexity, which collects data on international trade, Lebanon imported more than 60% of its wheat from Ukraine in 2020, making it heavily dependent on Ukrainian shipments, as well as Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia and Pakistan.
“It is a very strong symbol” to send the first ship to the port of Tripoli (north), said Claude Georgelet, director of AgritechTrade, according to whom as “the negotiations were under the aegis of the UN (…), there was undoubtedly a moral obligation to help countries with difficulties on the food front” like Lebanon.
However, the return to normal will not be immediate. No country has managed to compensate for the grain shortage caused by the conflict that began in February, which increases the risk of famine.
A junior engineer on the ship, Abdullah Jendi, said the crew was happy to move after their long stay in Odessa and that he, a Syrian, had not seen his family in more than a year.
“It is an indescribable feeling to return to my home country after suffering the siege and the dangers we faced due to the bombing,” he said.
With information from AFP and Reuters
