Some 694 ships passed through the grain corridor that was initiated by Türkiye and the U.N. to export grain products stuck in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion of the country, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişçi said Thursday.
“As of yesterday, 19.3 million tons of grain and food products were transported,” he told press members after the "Century of Türkiye & Money Talks" summit organized by Turkuvaz Media Group.
After an almost six-month blockade caused by the Russian invasion, three Ukrainian Black Sea ports were unblocked at the end of July 2022 under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye.
Stating that after the war between Russia and Ukraine, there was a panic about food supplies, Kirişçi said: “It will be one year since Russia's attack on Ukraine started on Feb. 24. A year ago, there was a great panic about the food supply all over the world. A concept called food nationalism emerged. Leading countries in agricultural production have imposed export bans.”
Underlining that the price of a ton of wheat rose to $440 with the start of the war a year ago and decreased to $325 this year, Kirişçi said, “The grain corridor not only brought comfort in food products but also brought about a decline in all commodities and energy prices.”
The minister said that European countries took the lion's share of the products exported through the grain corridor, however, he stated that products over export capacity will be sent to the needy countries that cannot reach enough food and grain.
He said that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are negotiating on the issue that would allow Russia to give wheat free of charge to those countries.
Under the grain deal, all ships are inspected by a joint coordination center with officials from the three countries and the U.N. set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments through the Bosporus.
The first ship carrying grain departed last August from the Ukrainian port of Odessa under the historic deal, which was extended for four months in mid-November.
Türkiye, internationally praised for its unique mediator role between Ukraine and Russia, has repeatedly called on Kyiv and Moscow to end the war through negotiations.
