Russia on Wednesday downplayed the role of its offensive in Ukraine in the soaring grain prices, calling not to "
exaggerate
" the importance of Ukrainian production in the world.
“
We should not exaggerate the importance of the influence on the international markets of
Ukrainian grain reserves,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"
It's too small a percentage to have a significant impact on the global food crisis, which has already begun
," he added.
Read alsoUkrainian cereals: the Danube and the port of Constanta, alternative routes to the blockade of Odessa
According to Dmitry Peskov, this crisis is due
to “a chain of events and unfortunate actions of governments around the world
”.
He did not specify what he was referring to.
Earlier, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, visiting Ankara, had also affirmed that the Russian offensive in Ukraine “
is not the cause or the catalyst of the food crisis
”.
“
We have paid a lot of attention to the problem of the export of Ukrainian cereals, which our Western colleagues and the Ukrainians are trying to present as a universal crisis, when the share of these cereals represents less than 1% of the world production of wheat and other cereals
," he said.
Since the start of the conflict, a spike in grain and oil prices has pushed up prices that have exceeded those reached during the Arab Springs of 2011 and the “
hunger riots
” of 2008. Major player in the cereals market, fourth world exporter of wheat and third world exporter of maize, Ukraine can no longer send its production through its Black Sea ports because of the Russian offensive.
Before the conflict, kyiv exported 12% of the world's wheat, 15% of corn and 50% of sunflower oil each month.
Read alsoThe amount of cereals blocked in Ukraine could triple by "by the fall", warns Zelensky
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, between 20 and 25 million tons of grain are blocked and this amount could increase to 70-75 million tons in the fall.
For the 2021/22 season, Ukraine exported 20 million tons of wheat and 27.5 million tons of corn, according to the US Department of Agriculture's WASDE (World Argicultural Supply and Demand Estimates) report.
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