Russia offers to replace Ukraine as main supplier of grain on world market

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Russia offers to replace Ukraine as main supplier of grain on world market
Image of Russian diplomat Konstantin Kosachev. Credit: Wikipdia - By Council.gov.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75032611

After pulling out of the Ukrainian grain initiative, Russia has offered to replace Ukraine as the main grain supplier on the world market.

 

Konstantin Kosachev, the Vice Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, said on Saturday, October 29, that given Russia’s huge harvest, the country is ready to completely replace Ukraine as the main supplier on the world market.

Posting on his Telegram channel, Kosachev wrote: “At least 50 countries are critically dependent on our grain, including the poorest countries in Africa. Given the huge harvest in the country, Russia is ready to completely replace Ukrainian grain on the world market, our export potential this season is estimated at more than 50 million tons”.

He stated that about 10.5 million tons of Russian grain had already been shipped to Asian and African countries outside the Istanbul agreements. Conveniently, his message came shortly after the Russian Foreign Ministry in the Kremlin announced that it was pulling out of the Ukrainian grain corridor initiative.

This agreement had been signed in Istanbul in Turkey on July 22 by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations. It lifted restrictions on the supply of Russian products for export and on Russia’s assistance in the export of Ukrainian grain, as reported by gazeta.ru.

The deal involved the export of Ukrainian grain, food, and fertilizer across the Bosphorus Strait in the Black Sea from three ports, including Odesa. Blaming an attack that occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning in the Crimean port of Sevastopol – where four Russian ships were allegedly damaged – Moscow stated that it would no longer be a part of the grain initiative.