Agreement signed by Ukraine and Russia will bring relief in food prices, says professor

The agreement signed by Ukraine and Russia to reopen ports for the export of grain in the Black Sea will mean “a relief in food prices”, evaluated the professor of International Relations at the Fluminense Federal University, Vitélio Brustolin.

“Currently in Ukraine, for example, there are about 20 to 25 million tons of grain ready to be shipped in the Odessa region and that makes the inflation of the whole world go up, especially for the price of food,” he said, in an interview. The CNN Radio .

He recalled that Ukraine and Russia, at war since the Russian invasion on February 24, are the world’s biggest agricultural exporters.

The Ukrainian territory is made up of 55% of arable land, and is the fifth largest exporter of wheat, in addition to being in the top 3 exporters of maize, barley and sunflower seeds.

For Vitélio Brustolin, the signing is a “positive step, it is the first major agreement signed during the war, it is good news, even for Brazil, which has ¼ of the fertilizers used coming from Russia.”

However, the professor points out that “there are details” in the agreement: “A control point will be set up in Istanbul, Turkey, so that Russia can make sure that ships leaving Ukraine do not return with weapons and the same will happen with ships that leave Ukraine. Russians.”

He reinforces that the outflow of grains will not start immediately and that the trend is for it to start in mid-August.

“It will take time for the grains to arrive and there is the issue of sea mines, which are difficult to see and carry up to 20 kg of dynamite, there must be cleaning of these smaller areas so as not to blow up vessels.”

Brustolin pointed out that the agreement is valid for four months, automatically renewable for another four: “The expectation is that 8 million tons of grains will be shipped per month, which is already great news”.

*Produced by Bruna Sales and Isabel Campos