Grain deal to be extended, possibly even expanded: UN Coordinator
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Negotiations to extend the agreement are underway, with the hope of reaching an agreement as the current one will expire on November 19.
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Secretary-General António Guterres and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the signing ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Turkey. (UNIC Ankara/Levent Kulu)
UN Coordinator for the Black Sea grain deal, Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, stated that the grain agreement will not only be extended but may also be expanded.
A source in Istanbul told Sputnik on Friday that negotiations to extend the agreement are underway, with the hope of reaching an agreement. The agreement will expire on November 19.
"There’s nothing that gives me any reason to believe it would not be extended. Everything I’ve heard would intimate that it will not only be extended but potentially expanded," Abdulla said in an interview with Politico on Friday.
Moscow and Kiev have made requests to extend the agreement, according to the official. Thus, Russia wants to resume ammonia exports, while Ukraine wants to extend the agreement for more than a year and include the port of Mykolaiv.
Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey signed an UN-brokered agreement on July 22 to establish a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships transporting food and fertilizer from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated on numerous occasions that the majority of ships carrying Ukrainian grain did not make it to the world's poorest countries and instead ended up in Europe. Moscow has also maintained that the deal's provision for Russian food products is ineffective.
Low-income nations get only quarter of grain
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) revealed on October 7 that only a quarter of the grain exported under the UN-brokered deal with Ukraine and Russia via the Black Sea is going to low-income countries.
"Now, the concern again, is that despite these bigger food availabilities, still only around 25 to 26% of the grain ... is going to low-income countries," an FAO statement said.
It is essential to improve an increased food access capacity for the most vulnerable countries for the ratio to start changing, the statement added.
"And that's what we are observing and that's why there was an improvement in the last six months."
Most of the grain leaving Ukraine's ports after the grain shipments deadlock that exacerbated the international food crisis is heading to the European Union instead of developing countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said back in September as the world's poorest nations bear the brunt of the food crisis most.
Several countries are at risk of dwindling grain supplies, such as Somalia, Yemen, Niger, and Lebanon, to name a few.
Following the investigation of the explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge on Friday, Putin said that if it becomes known that the grain supply corridors were used by Ukraine to carry out terrorist attacks, the grain deal might be revised.
