Monitoring Desk
DAVOS: Inspections of ships carrying Ukrainian grain and other food exports have decelerated to half their peak rate under a United Nations-brokered wartime deal, creating backlogs in vessels meant to transport supplies to developing countries where people are hungry, UN and Ukrainian officials say.
Some Ukrainian and US officials accuse Russia of deliberately decelerating inspections; however, a Russian official denied the allegations.
As the grain deal got rolling in August, just 4.1 inspections of ships — both heading to Ukraine and leaving Ukraine — took place every day on average, according to data the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul provided to AP news agency. Inspection teams from the UN, Russia, Turkiye, and Ukraine ensure ships carry only agricultural and food products and no weapons.
In September, inspections increased to 10.4 per day, then peaked at 10.6 in October last year. Since then, it has been downhill: 7.3 in November, 6.5 in December, and 5.3 in January so far.
Slowdown in grain supply to cause hunger
“It was hoped that going into 2023, every month the daily rate of inspection would see an increase, not that you would see it decreased,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power stated in an interview at the WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday.
He said the slowdown in inspections “has a material effect in terms of the number of ships that can get out. He added that, in turn, necessarily has a knock-on effect on the international supply.
According to the UN, over 100 vessels are waiting in the waters off Turkiye for inspection and applications to participate in clearing, with the waiting time of vessels between inspection and application averaging 21 days in the last 14 days. Despite the decrease in average daily inspections, UN figures showed that more grain got through last month, an increase of 3.7 million metric tons from 2.6 million in November last year. The coordination center explained that the increase was due to the use of bigger vessels in December 2023.
Officials fear about what comes next in the grain supply. The United Nations deputy spokesman in New York linked the halved in inspections to the backlogs in ships. He said the rate needs to pick up but did not pin the blame on Russia.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was formulated to free up Ukrainian wheat and other food items critical to countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, where shortages of affordable supplies increased food prices and threw more people into poverty.
