The Middle East needs Ukrainian wheat despite efforts to diversify supply

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Monday he is hopeful that a deal to allow Ukraine to resume wheat exports through its Black Sea ports will be signed this week. Borrell said in a press conference in Brussels that Moscow must let Ukraine export wheat or else, in the eyes of the international community, Russia will be seen as a country that uses “food as a weapon without any consideration for human beings’ lives. “It’s not a diplomatic game. It’s an issue of life and death for many human beings,” Borrell continued.

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The announcement comes after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul last Wednesday to discuss the issue under the mediation of the UN and Turkey. Russia and Ukraine together account for around a third of global wheat exports, and the Middle East is the main consumer of the Russo-Ukrainian wheat. A quarter of the wheateaten in Egypt comes from Ukraine; in Libya, around half of the wheat comes from Ukraine,and in Lebanon, more than 60% of the wheat is Ukrainian. READ MORE