Turkey seeks to persuade Russia, Ukraine into grain deal to prevent food crisis

Ankara : Turkey is seeking to broker a grain corridor from Ukraine across the Black Sea as part of a United Nations-backed effort to avert a food crisis.
Ukraine is a major grain exporter to Africa and the Middle East. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict drags on, disruption to the shipments is pushing prices higher, fuelling an international shortage of food, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, international maritime insurance companies have placed the region on a “high risk” list, which would result in significantly higher shipping prices for agricultural products.
The United Nations had already appealed to Russia and Ukraine, as well as NATO member Turkey to agree to a maritime corridor to export grain from Ukraine. Turkey has authority over maritime traffic entering and leaving the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait.
Experts said any Turkish-brokered grain corridor would involve cargo vessels leaving Black Sea ports such as the Ukrainian city of Odessa with a Turkish naval escort, before travelling towards Turkey and on to global markets.
“Even if an agreement is reached soon, there are logistical challenges, such as getting ships ready, demining the zone, and preparing the legal basis of such an operation,” Murat Onsoy, a scholar from Ankara’s Hacettepe University, told Xinhua.