UN / BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE

The Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Rebeca Grynspan, who has been leading the UN Task Team on facilitating access to food and fertilizer from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, said the Black Sea agreements were “essential” in making food affordable for “millions of people in the world,” but added that “prices at the domestic level have not yet seen the decrease that we have seen in the international markets.” UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:28
• Production Date: 13 September 2022
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: REBECA GRYNSPAN
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT - UNCTAD
• Subject Topical: CONFLICT; FERTILIZERS; FOOD SECURITY; SHIPPING; TRADE
• Geographic Subject: RUSSIAN FEDERATION; UKRAINE
• MAMS Id: 2932251
• Parent Id: 2932251
• Alternate Title: unifeed220913b

Description

STORY: UN / BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE
TRT: 02:28
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters

13 SEPTEMBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY

2. Various shots, press room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) / Coordinator, Task Team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance:
“The agreements were essential to be able to make food affordable for the millions of people in the world. We needed prices to come down to really combat the price hike in food that many have experience during these times.”
4. Wide shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) / Coordinator, Task Team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance:
“Prices at the international level have gone down. But it's true that prices at the domestic level have not yet seen the decrease that we have seen in the international markets. So doing this is not enough. We needed to go also to the trouble that the countries are facing due to the devaluation of their currencies and the hike in the interest rates in the international markets.”
6. Med shot, reporters
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Amir Abdulla, Coordinator, Black Sea Grain Initiative, United Nations:
“We have had 129 successful voyages out of Ukraine fully laden. That has taken us up to nearly 3 million tonnes, over 2.8 million, nearly 2.9. So, we're close to hitting the 3 million tonne mark.”
8. Wide shot, dais
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Amir Abdulla, Coordinator, Black Sea Grain Initiative, United Nations:
“There are other channels and other avenues of other points that need to come into play. They're not part of the Black Sea initiative, but they're part of the overall picture of bringing these two efforts - you can only say two sides of the same coin key - to make sure that both of them achieve what we're hoping to.”
10. Wide shot, dais
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Amir Abdulla, Coordinator, Black Sea Grain Initiative, United Nations:
“Fertilizers are important for the world to have enough food in the next harvest. We are going on into the sowing season in the northern hemisphere. If we cannot solve this problem, that is an urgent problem that will affect and bring a food crisis in the future.”
12. Wide shot, press room dais

Storyline

The Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Rebeca Grynspan, who has been leading the UN Task Team on facilitating access to food and fertilizer from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, today (13 Sep) said the Black Sea agreements were “essential” in making food affordable for “millions of people in the world,” but added that “prices at the domestic level have not yet seen the decrease that we have seen in the international markets.”

Talking via video teleconference with reporters in New York, Grynspan said, “We needed prices to come down to really combat the price hike in food that many have experience during these times.”

Also briefing remotely, the Coordinator of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Amir Abdulla, said, “we have had 129 successful voyages out of Ukraine fully laden. That has taken us up to nearly 3 million tonnes, over 2.8 million, nearly 2.9. So, we're close to hitting the 3 million tonne mark.”

Abdulla spoke about the difficulties in implementing the agreements. He said, “there are other channels and other avenues of other points that need to come into play. They're not part of the Black Sea initiative, but they're part of the overall picture of bringing these two efforts - you can only say two sides of the same coin key - to make sure that both of them achieve what we're hoping to.”

Grynspan was asked about the particular difficulties in shipping fertilizers out of the Russian Federation. She said, “fertilizers are important for the world to have enough food in the next harvest. We are going on into the sowing season in the northern hemisphere. If we cannot solve this problem, that is an urgent problem that will affect and bring a food crisis in the future.”

The agreements signed on 27 July in Istanbul, Türkiye enable Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea, and pave the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets

The initiative specifically allows for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhny.