Europe and the rest of the world should be grateful to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for bringing Russia and Ukraine together and initiating a critical wartime deal that eased global food supply concerns, according to a former senior EU official.
Brokered by Türkiye and the United Nations last July, the grain deal that allows Ukrainian grain trapped by Russia’s invasion to be safely exported from the country's Black Sea ports has helped ease woes over the global food supply, especially to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where many are already struggling with hunger.
"It is true that Mr. President Erdoğan, as a mediator, was able to bring the two parties together and to initiate a trade deal or a transport deal, and I think Europe and also the rest of the world should be grateful that he was able to do that," Franz Fischler, former European Commissioner for agriculture and rural development and fisheries, told Daily Sabah.
Fischler’s remarks came on the sidelines of the Future Leaders Executive Program (FLEP), organized by the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) in Istanbul on Saturday.
"But now it would be important that this (initiative) could be continued," he said.
The landmark agreement is set to expire on May 18 unless renewed. Russia has repeatedly threatened to abandon the Black Sea Grain Initiative unless the West removes obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports.
Russia and Ukraine are major grain producers, but Moscow says parts of the deal meant to allow it to export its agricultural goods via the Black Sea are not being honored.
"Because of the export power of the two countries, Russia and Ukraine, to have a free flow of cereals is really of utmost importance," said Fischler. "And this requires open harvest and ports and as long as the war is going, it requires agreements between the parties concerned."
Although Russia's agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by Western sanctions, Moscow says restrictions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries – imposed over its military actions in Ukraine – have created a barrier to exporting its grains and fertilizers.
Fischler also elaborated on concerns over soaring food prices, which he said stem in part from the Black Sea grain deal's woes and inflation woes plaguing households worldwide.
"First of all, exactly the problems in the Black Sea and the problems with the wheat and other cereal exports create turbulences in the international prices because the wheat markets, the other cereal markets, or futures markets, as soon as the market is difficult, it influences future prices," he noted.
"As you have seen, maybe when you follow the statistics in the commodity markets, the prices went up immediately when the blockage of the ports started and then they decreased after the deal was done," Fischler said.
"We see similar situations more often, when we had, for example, a similar problem but then based on speculation mainly in the year 2015, and we will see a similar situation also in other contexts.
"What can be done? The only way out in these situations is to have agreements, deals, rules, and regulations," he added.
Fischler also emphasized that soaring inflation is a factor that makes more people insecure, describing food security as a "huge issue worldwide."
"Food security in its extreme form, the hunger problem has also been increasing now for about five years and more experts say that the SDG (the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals) goal of eradicating hunger by 2030 is out of reach," he stressed.
"We will see whether this is going to happen, but one thing is clear, we will not be able to eradicate hunger in this short period. But, at least, let’s hope it will be possible to reduce the number of hungry people, especially children. Because children are the ones most suffering from this situation."