Since its initiation in July of last year, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has facilitated the export of a significant quantity of 31.9 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs.
The figure, announced by the UN Information Office in Geneva, includes 625,169 tons of grain shipped on vessels chartered by the World Food Program (WFP) in support of its humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In 2022, Ukraine supplied more than half of the WFP’s global wheat grain procurement, as was the case in 2021, the office said.

It noted that the volume of food exported by the initiative in May was “the lowest” since the start of the initiative and “well below shipping demand and Ukraine’s export capacity.”

Noting that the deal also provides for the export of fertilizer, including ammonia, it said that no such exports have been carried out so far.

“Exports of ammonia under the initiative could start once an ammonia pipeline from the Russian Federation to the Ukrainian port of Yuzhny/ Pivdennyi, halted by the conflict, is restarted,” it said.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine initially signed an agreement in Istanbul last July to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which were halted after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022.

A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN was set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.