Ukrainian grain shipments drop as ship backups grow
LA TimesA boat with Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and United Nations officials heads to inspect cargo ships coming from Ukraine loaded with grain in the Marmara Sea in Istanbul on Oct. 1, 2022. The amount of grain leaving Ukraine has dropped even as a United Nations-brokered deal works to keep food flowing to developing nations, with inspections of ships falling to half what they were four months ago and a backlog of vessels growing as Russia’s invasion nears the one-year mark. They accused Moscow of obstructing work under the deal and then “taking advantage of the opportunity of uninterrupted trade shipping from Russian Black Sea ports.” Osnato also raised the possibility that Russia might be slowing inspections “in order to pick up more business” after harvesting a large wheat crop. Alexander Pchelyakov, a spokesman for the Russian diplomatic mission to U.N. institutions in Geneva, said last month that the allegations of deliberate slowdowns are “simply not true.” Russian officials also have complained that the country’s fertilizer is not being exported under the agreement, leaving renewal of the four-month deal that expires March 18 in question. What’s needed now is “good weather and a couple of crop seasons to become more comfortable with global supplies across a number of different grains” and “see a significant decline in food prices globally.”