The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain departed from the port city of Odesa en route to Lebanon since Russia's invasion earlier this year. Futures of grain such as wheat, corn, and soy all dropped on the news, showing the importance of Ukrainian commodities. Cheddar News speaks with  Abiola Afolayan, Senior International Policy Advisor for Bread for the World, who breaks down the impact of Ukrainian grain on the global marketplace.

Closing Bell

Ukrainian Grain Exports Resume in Black Sea, Wheat Futures Drop

Yeah, welcome back to cheddar. News is closing bell everyone a major sigh of relief for Ukrainian farmers and countries threatened by food shortages today. After the first ship carrying Ukrainian grain set off from the ports of Odessa after months of blockades by Russia. Well, officials say the sierra Leone flagged cargo ship left for Lebanon with 26,000 tons of corn. The Mideast nation among many countries impacted by the ongoing war in Ukraine and suffering from its worst financial crisis in more than 100 and 50 years. Well, joining me now to discuss is Abiola Appalachian, senior international policy advisor for bread for the world. Abiola thanks so much for joining. Now. I know Ukraine and Russia accounting for about a third of global wheat exports just before the war exports. Resuming today after Turkey and the U. N. Did broker a grain and fertilizer deal between the two countries last month. So at least a little bit of movement. I think that that's certainly a positive. How does today's news impact global wheat corn and other grain prices and access for people who need these supplies around the world. Thank you so much for having me. And it's good to see you. I think that this is a step in the right direction that there's actually movement of foodstuff items that have been stuck in the storage units in Ukraine over the past few months. And we already see that the prices of wheat and corn have actually decreased substantially. Think 1.2 1.6% and 2.1% respectively. So that's a really the sign this agreement that the U. N. Brokered along with Turkey that Secretary Guterres called the Beacon on the Black Sea agreement is gonna last for about 100 120 days. And it really could mean the difference between life and death for people across the globe who are impacted by the food insecurity that we've been grappling with as a result of Covid as a result of climate issues related to drought etcetera. And then has been exacerbated as you pointed out because of the crisis that's going on in Ukraine and Russia. And this is a big deal, it's a big deal because food can actually be moved out of the storage units and shipped to these food um locations where they can now be deployed to different parts of the world, fertilizer is also part of this agreement. So it's kind of a big deal that more people will have access to fertilizer so they're able to produce locally. And this is going to impact obviously the price of food for all of us and also the access to food for people in need. It's been so crucial. Um I know especially now for many people, millions of people, hundreds of millions of people around the world. We were showing some images there of this ship, cargo ship actually leaving. That port city of Odessa. Such iconic images today and of course countries around the world welcoming today's breakthrough, Let's take a listen. So this is very important and very welcome first step. And we look forward to the implementation of the whole deal and resumption of Ukrainian exports to the customers, customers all around the world. But they needed because the negative consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and blockage of Ukrainian ports are affecting the most vulnerable people. I just how many people Abiola among the most vulnerable as we were hearing there on that sound bite? Will this effect in terms of hopefully lower prices and at least access for now? Right. So there's a report that comes out which is the global food crisis report that's created by the U. N. And other agencies. And in that report, they did an analysis of countries who are actually impacted by the crisis that's happening happening in Ukraine and Russia and 82 countries are affected and in that a lot of countries in Africa, specifically in the Horn of Africa are impacted by the crisis in Ukraine and Russia. So, to your question on how this impact people who are in need, let me contextualize it 13.7 million tons of Of wheat and other food basket items actually come out of the Ukraine Russia region, to the region of Africa. So the fact that 26,000 tons of food are now is now moving out of Russia out of Ukraine to then be deployed. This is a step in the right direction because it's the beginning of conversations around how do we get food out of Ukraine fertilizer out of Russia to really help the needs of people who are in these parts of the world, such as in the Horn of africa. So my next question, uh A Viola is I want you to break down for us what has been agreed to what was agreed to in Istanbul last month to ensure that these ships can going forward get out of the Black Sea safely. That led to this watershed moment today. Yeah, so there's been a lot of discussions and I think one of the key sort of takeaways from this agreement is that Ukrainian people, you know, Ukraine will actually help to monitor and steer the ship in the right direction so that the ships that are getting the food stuff items out of Ukraine are not treading these sort of areas where we have concerns around attacks on the ships because of the ongoing war. So I think that that's a very critical part of that deal, because part of the issue has been how do we get the ships out safely so that we can get them to from from the ports and Odessa to wherever they're going? So in this case that this particular uh the result is headed to Tripoli in Lebanon. So how do we get the ship safely from port to port. So I think that's a really, really big deal because um we can put everything on paper as far as What we want to get out. But if we're not able to actually move the ship safely, that's a problem. And as far as the other key point is 120 days. So this deal is renewable obviously. Um but we also want to keep that at the back of our minds that this is a very limited time deal. And so the U.N. has expressed that they're going to replenish efforts to get as much food out of Ukraine as possible to be, you know, to the different courts to be determined. So I think that's also a really big big deal. As far as getting as much brains, as much wheat, you know, whatever else would come out of this deal to get uh food and fertilizer to the different ports. Oh it was good to see. It was good to see at the top news story across all major networks today as well and news outlets, Abiola thank you so much for joining that Abiola Appalachian, senior international policy advisor for bread for the world