The United Nations and other parties to the deal have announced that a wartime agreement that unblocked grain shipments from Ukraine and helped temper rising global food prices will be extended by four months, preventing a price shock to some of the world’s most vulnerable countries where many are struggling with hunger.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the 120-day extension a “key decision in the global fight against the food crisis”.
The deal that Ukraine and Russia signed in separate agreements with the UN and Turkey on July 22 was due to expire Saturday (local time). Russia confirmed the extension but said it expected progress on removing obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilisers.
Ukraine and Russia are key global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil, and other food to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia where millions of impoverished people lack enough to eat. Russia was also the world's top exporter of fertiliser before the war. A loss of those supplies following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine had pushed up global food prices and fuelled concerns of a hunger crisis in poorer countries.
Global food prices declined about 15 percent from their March peak after the grain initiative was adopted in July.
