U.S. to Buy Ukraine Grain, as Ship Traffic Increases
By William Mauldin & Jared Malsin, Aug. 16, 2022, WSJ

The U.S. Agency for Int'l Development is spending more than $68 million to purchase and ship Ukrainian grain in the largest such export deal since Russia’s invasion this year and the start of a July agreement to allow for renewed shipments from Ukraine�
��s Black Sea ports.

USAID is providing the funds to the World Food Program, a United Nations agency that historically gets the biggest part of its grain from Ukraine, to purchase, ship and store up to 150,000 metric tons of wheat, the agency said.

“While this additional wheat will be used to help feed people in countries facing severe hunger and malnutrition, much more is needed to help the world recover from the global devastation caused by Putin’s brutal war,” USAID administrator Samantha
Power said in a statement.

The U.S. so far has provided $4.8 billion to the World Food Program this year, the most of any year. Some of those donations come from the emergency humanitarian funding that Congress gave USAID in May in response to the conflict in Ukraine and the
global repercussions.

The July grain export deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, has been gathering momentum in recent days as the pace of ships moving in and out of Ukrainian ports has accelerated.

Five more ships left Ukraine under the agreement on Tuesday in the largest single convoy to depart since the deal was signed in July. Another four ships were set to be inspected in Istanbul on their way to Ukraine, according to the Turkish defense
ministry.

The shipments have raised hopes that the Black Sea grain corridor can meet the U.N.’s goal of alleviating a global hunger crisis caused in part by the invasion. The Russian attack in February trapped millions of tons of grain and other foodstuffs in
Ukraine, contributing to a surge in world food prices that has pushed tens of millions of people closer to starving.

Before the war, Ukraine exported about 10% of the world’s wheat, and was a key supplier to countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, where the food crisis has been most severe.

The increasing tempo of Ukraine’s Black Sea exports is the result of frenzied work in recent weeks by Ukrainian, Turkish, and U.N. officials who have been racing to operationalize the agreement since it was signed in July. In recent days the first
ships to both enter and leave Ukrainian ports have departed safely in a rare sign of normality along Ukraine’s vital shipping lanes.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Aug. 18 in Lviv, according to a U.N. spokesman, before visiting the port of Odessa, one of the three ports being
used as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Before returning to New York, Mr. Guterres will also visit the joint coordination center in Istanbul that was set up to implement the initiative, the spokesman said.

The future of the agreement remains clouded by uncertainty since it depends on the warring parties refraining from attacks on the ships and the three ports covered by the agreement. Russian forces fired missiles at the port of Odessa just hours after
officials signed the agreement in late July.

The signing of the agreement in July pushed wheat prices to their lowest level since the invasion in February. Benchmark Chicago wheat futures fell on Tuesday to $7.86 a bushel.

Among the ships that departed Ukraine on Tuesday was the first vessel carrying a humanitarian cargo of wheat. The ship, the Brave Commander, is carrying 23,000 tons of wheat for the World Food Program in Ethiopia, a mission partly funded by USAID.

In a twist, the first ship to depart Ukraine under the agreement turned back before delivering its cargo of corn to Lebanon after both buyer and seller mutually agreed to call off the transaction this week, the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut said. The ship,
the Razoni, is now believed to be near the Syrian port of Tartus, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday, citing unspecified reports.

U.N. officials have said that they expect the number of applications from commercial shippers to transit the corridor to increase in the coming weeks.

Under the agreement, Ukrainian pilots are to guide the ships between mines laid by both Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea. Teams of inspectors check each ship as it enters and exits the Black Sea through the Bosporus, while a control center staffed by
U.N. officials and military officers from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey oversees the operation.

So far, 21 ships have been authorized to leave three Ukrainian ports in and around Odessa under the agreement, according to the United Nations. The ships carried a total of 563,317 metric tons of corn, wheat, sunflower meal, soy beans, sunflower oil and
other products.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-buy-ukraine-grain-as-ship-traffic-increases-11660686859

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U.S. to Buy Ukraine Grain, as Ship Traffic Increases
By William Mauldin & Jared Malsin, Aug. 16, 2022, WSJ

The U.S. Agency for Int'l Development is spending more than $68 million to purchase and ship Ukrainian grain in the largest such export deal since Russia's invasion this year and the start of a July agreement to allow for renewed shipments from Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

USAID is providing the funds to the World Food Program, a United Nations agency that historically gets the biggest part of its grain from Ukraine, to purchase, ship and store up to 150,000 metric tons of wheat, the agency
said.

In some outlets, one can come across phrases like "Ukraine and Russia
are two of the world's biggest wheat exporters" and the like. Such a
claim is inaccurate. Actually, Russia was the world's biggest wheat
exporter recently, and in some years the US and Canada were close to
it. The Ukraine was in the second tier of the exporters, together with
France, Australia and Argentina. The Ukraine's share of the world
total wheat exports in the previous years was about 8%.

Currently, the Russian military have managed to occupy about half or
somewhat less than half of the wheat fields in the [former] Ukraine.
It means that the amount of wheat that may be presently supplied under
the Kiev regime's control may be estimated as 4-5% of the world total.
Given that it can be brought out not only through the Black Sea ports,
the impact of "unlocking" of those some ports may be estimated as 2-3%
of the world total. It's not so critical globally. The big Atlanticist-
driven hype about "unlocking ports" is very disproportionate to its
real significance in the context of the "world food crisis" narrative.

In turn, the wheat from the fields occupied by Russia, does not go to
waste. All the fields have some private owners or renters. The harvest
is their property. Available way for the local farmers is to sell
their harvest to Russia's big scale agro-dealers, and that's what they
do. I.e. this wheat enters the market through Russian resellers.

The Kiev regime interprets buying of the wheat from the local farmers
as "theft", and calls others not to buy "the stolen wheat", which is irrelevant, since Russia can use it simply for domestic consumption.

More real issue is not the "blocked grain" as such, but the fact that
the massive "sanctions" introduced against Russia, in combination with
other factors, backfired so that various food producers in various
places now face higher costs for fuel /fertilizers /transportation etc
and it all contributes to lesser productivity and higher food prices.
Also, it all promises a longer-term fallout. E.g. as some farmers have
to reduce livestock today, it means higher meat prices in the future.

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