Belgian PM comments on Ukrainian grain exports to Kurdistan 24

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Alexander De Croo, Belgium's prime minister, responded to Kurdistan 24 correspondent Barzani Hassan regarding the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations signed the Black Sea Grain Initiative during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The initiative sought to relieve the global wheat shortage caused by the Ukraine War by forcing Russia to allow Ukrainian grain exports to resume.

On Monday, Russia officially withdrew from the initiative hours before the deadline was set to expire.

“The countries that would be impacted by that [Black Sea Grain Initiative] often are very poor countries who have no link to what is happening in Europe," the Belgian PM told Kurdistan 24.

De Croo also hopes that this is only a temporary measure and that they can quickly turn to the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

“This was something which [UN] Secretary-General Guterres really made happen on this personal level so I hope you can research that soon,” he added.

The markets responded to the news with a 3% increase to the price of wheat on Monday and the price of the commodity is expected to further rise.  Both Russia and Ukraine are major wheat exporters to the Middle East.

Under the initiative, the price of wheat had previously been reduced by 35% after it had reached a historic high of $444 per metric ton on May 16, 2022.