Sunday, July 24, 2022

The Grain Deal

 Finally we have something sort of hopeful happen in the war in Ukraine that might help alleviate problems it has generated for much of the world.  A deal has been struck to allow Ukrainian grain to be exported from Odesa and two smaller ports near it across the Black Sea and out into the Mediterranean to world markets.  With something like 20 million tons of grain, mostly wheat, sitting there for some time, with Ukraine responsible for something like 10% of world wheat exports, this has been a major problem, pushing up the price of wheat and fertilizer and sunflower oil, with this hitting especially hard several nations in the Middle East such as Egypt and in East Africa, such as Somalia. This holds the potential indeed to more generally ease global inflationary pressure in the food sector.

This is a very curious deal, with it in fact being two deals. One is between Ukraine, the UN, and Turkey while the other is between Russia, the UN, and Turkey. But they fit together. It seems the key people pulling it off are Turkish President Erdogan and UN Secretary General Guterres. They must be applauded for this. Crucial to it is how commercial ships will be allowed into and out of the ports involved and how they will skirt mines in the Black Sea that will apparently not be fully removed. Curiously a key part of the negotiation involved getting insurance companies to agree that it could be pulled off so they would be willing to insure the ships involved. 

While this is a hopeful development, there are some mysteries about it and some reasons to be concerned it will not really get fulfilled. Obviously Ukraine will gain from it.  Erdogan gains much prestige and Turkey will play a central role as all ships involved must pass through Turkish-controlled Sea of Bosporus, where apparently they will be inspected by both Ukrainians and Russians as well as Turks to make sure no arms are smuggled in. I gather Turkey will also get some financial compensation.

The mystery to me is what does Putin or Russia more broadly get from this and why was he willing to go along with it? A probable key event was Putin's recent visit to Tehran, his first outside of the former Soviet Union since the invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24. President Erdogan also visited Tehran at the same time, and he and Putin met there at that time. I am sure that this discussion must have played a crucial role in sealing the deal, which makes me think there are parts of this that have not been made public. After all, Ukraine gains a lot, but Russia is already able to sell its grain, and the price for it may fall with the Ukrainian grain getting out into world markets.  I really am unclear why Putin agreed.

And indeed, the lack of obvious clear gains, aside from perhaps publicity to look not so bad in a situation where he and Russia have been sharply criticized, may lead to a lack of enthusiasm about following through on it fully and some sandbagging of it in practice. One sign of this is that Russia has hit Odesa with cruise missiles since the agreement was signed, reportedly a grain storage facility in particular. That certainly is not in the spirit of things. It has also been suggested that Russian inspectors in Istanbul may act to slow and delay the ships coming through with Ukrainian grain, if they do not actually outright break the agreement by sabotaging the ships while still in the Black Sea.

So, this is a deal that provides some hope. But it also looks to face some serious possibilities of not really being properly fulfilled.

Barkley Rosser

4 comments:

Procopius said...

I have been annoyed that the Western MSM mostly blame Russia for not allowing Ukrainian ships to traverse the Black Sea. The biggest reason for ships not using Odesa is that the harbor was mined by the Ukrainians. Some of the mines have broken loose from their moorings and are now floating around the Black Sea, randomly.Apparently there are not enough to worry the Russians, who have been shipping grain from the ports they've captured, but I would think insurance brokers would be concerned. I look forward to seeing how long it takes the Ukrainians to start shipping from Odesa.

2slugbaits said...

Small quibble...I think you meant "20 million tons" rather than "20 tons."

For me the most likely explanation for Russia's agreeing to allow grain exports is that the main impact was falling on governments that are more or less friendly to Russia. Food shortages in those countries risked regime change in those countries. Russia's blockade of grain shipments hasn't improved the Russian military's situation on the ground, so why risk threats to friendly governments? There's also the fact that maintaining a grain blockade consumes Russian military resources that could be redeployed elsewhere. Russian ships in the Odesa region would likely become new targets as the Ukrainians get deliveries of more advanced western missiles.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Thanks,2slug. Will fix.

It does seem that Russia concerned especially about some of the African nations.

Frank (JMU alum) said...

This is interesting in the context of Greece seeking bids for the port of Alexandroupolis where there are many US marines currently stationed to support the Ukrainian effort (https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/greece-seeks-bidders-for-strategic-port-of-alexandroupolis/). The Economist had an article about this as well, describing the nature of the various likely bids made to date.