The Black Sea Grain Initiative

#GS-02 International Relations

About Black Sea Grain Initiative:

The Black Sea Grain deal endeavours to tackle escalating food prices emanating from supply chain disruptions because of Russia’s actions in the world’s ‘breadbasket’.
The initiative specifically allows for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny.
The Secretary-General of UN announced the establishment of a Joint Coordination Centre to monitor implementation.
It will be hosted in Istanbul and will include representatives from Ukraine, Russia and Türkiye.
Ukrainian vessels will guide the cargo ships into international waters of the Black Sea, avoiding mined areas.
The vessels will then proceed towards the Bosphorus Strait along an agreed corridor.
Ships heading to and from the Ukrainian ports will be inspected by teams organised by the Joint Coordination Centre.
The first shipment of over 26,000 tons of Ukrainian food under a Black Sea Grain Initiative was cleared to proceed on 3 August, towards its destination in Lebanon.
As per the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, approximately 10.1 million tonnes of grains have been shipped since the initiative commenced.

About 44% of the shipments, which include corn, wheat, rapeseed, and sunflower oil among others, reached high-income countries (including Spain, Netherlands and Italy among others),
28% reached low and lower-middle-income countries (Egypt, Iran, Sudan and Kenya among others) and,
27% reached upper-middle income countries (China and Bulgaria among others).

The JCC was established on 27 July 2022 in Istanbul.
The JCC comprises representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Türkiye and the United Nations.
The Initiative is focused on exporting grain, other foodstuffs and fertilizers, including ammonia, from Ukraine.

The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities.
It consists of the average of five commodity group price indices weighted by the average export shares of each of the groups over 2014-2016.