Africa-Press – Botswana. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, defended, this Saturday, in Istanbul, that Russian fertilizers and agricultural products must have “unhindered” access to world markets, otherwise there will be a global crisis as early as 2023.
“It is important that governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market”, defended Guterres, from the Joint Coordination Center, which oversees the implementation of the agreement on the export of Ukrainian cereals, signed in July by Kiev and Moscow, under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey.
The agreement also guarantees that Russia can export its agricultural products and fertilizers despite Western sanctions.
“What we see here in Istanbul and in Odessa is only the most visible part of the solution. The other part of this global agreement is unrestricted access to world markets for Russian food and fertilizers, which are not subject to sanctions,” said Guterres, noting that despite this, exports of fertilizers and Russian products still face “obstacles”.
“Without fertilizer in 2022, there may not be enough food in 2023. Getting more food and fertilizer out of Ukraine and Russia is essential to calm markets (…) and lower prices for consumers,” warned the Secretary-General of the UN.
António Guterres was in Ukraine this week, where he met on Thursday in Lviv with Ukrainian Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before traveling to Odessa on Friday.
The previous Saturday, he visited the first UN-chartered humanitarian ship carrying Ukrainian grain off the coast south of Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara.
The brave commander, whose final destination is Djibouti, left the Ukrainian port of Pivdenny on Tuesday with 23,000 tonnes of wheat before crossing the Bosphorus on Wednesday night.
The UN Secretary-General promised that his organization would work to “intensify” Ukrainian cereal exports before the onset of winter, as these are crucial to the food supply of many African countries.
Under the terms of the agreement signed in July, 650,000 tonnes of Ukrainian cereals and agricultural products have left the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny since 1 August.
Ships must pass through a safe corridor in the Black Sea and then be inspected by the Joint Coordination Center (CCC) before being allowed to cross the Bosphorus Strait.
Grain exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest producers and exporters, have been blocked for several months by the Russian invasion, raising fears of a global food crisis.
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