Starting February 2022 when the war between Russia and Ukraine started taking place, the reality has forced that all grain stock at port of Pivennyi in Yuzhny, Odesa province sit ideally. This last reason not only triggered shortage in stock or the commodity disappeared, moreover it resulted a tremendous price hike which resulted famine to some group of people particularly in less developed countries such as Africa.
First week of August 2022 Antonio Guterres – Secretary General of United Nations; formed a negotiation team including World Food Programme (WFP ) with facilitation of Turkiye government to find best solution on how the sitting grain cargo could leave Odesa at its first possible vessel. (Please visit: https://youtube.com/shorts/JK6rotQBZRQ – for narrative explication).
Thanks to the effort reached. In the morning of 16 August 2022, first cargo of 23,000 metric tons of World Food Program (WFP) wheat sailed out on UN-chartered vessel Brave Commander, bound for drought-hit Horn of Africa region, where catastrophic hunger threatens more than 20 million people. This shipment to serve the hungriest people in Ethiopia like elderly couple Tesfaye and Tirhas, uprooted by conflict gripping the country’s North till to parched fields in the South.
As of 7 September 2022 in updated news, 100 vessels left Ukrainian ports carrying a total of 2,334,310 metric tons of grains and other food stuffs with geographical distribution per continent as follow:
1. A total of 47% went to: Turkiye – 20%, China-7%, Republic of Korea-6%, Iran-5%, India-4%, Israel-2%, Yemen-2% and Lebanon-<1%.
2. A total of 36% of the cargo was shipped to : Spain-15%, Italy -7%, the Netherlands-5%, Romania- 4%, Germany-3%, Ireland, France-1% and Bulgaria and Greece- <1%.
3. A total of 17% of the cargo was moved to Egypt 10%, Sudan-3%, Kenya-2% and Somalia and Djibouti-1%.
In summary:
- First : World Food Program chartered vessel docked in Djibouti (1%) on 30 August to support drought response in the Horn of Africa.
- Second: UN-chartered vessel loaded with 37,500 metric tons of wheat sailed on 30 August and docked in Turkiye on 3 September, where wheat will be milled to flour. This flour will then be loaded onto a different ship that will head to Yemen to support World Food Programme’s humanitarian response there.
- Third: WFP – chartered vessel – 7 September 2022 anchored at Istanbul planning to head to Ukraine and collect a further shipment of wheat
Conclusion:
Cargo consists of 57% of corn, 22% – wheat, 11% – sunflower products, 7% – barley and rapeseed, 1% – soya beans and 4% – other. It is expected these cargos arrive in time in good to serve people’ need. This is to assure everybody meets the right to live by having sufficient food to eat, meanwhile SDG2 target ‘Zero Hunger’ is fulfilled.
