The grain corridor's role in alleviating global food shortages

Food problems globally are not only caused by prices. Because, regardless of pricing, certain countries face problems with physical access to specific food products. The Russo-Ukrainian War has made this situation, which has been already underway, a little more obvious.

The most significant impact of the Russia-Ukraine War, other than energy prices, was on food prices and food accessibility. The siege of Ukrainian ports and the prevention of the navigation of grain ships topped headlines for a long time. In the period when the problems on this issue were at a high level, serious relief was attained thanks toTürkiye. Even after Russia wanted to withdraw from the agreement with Putin's instructions, the process was kept operational once again with Erdogan's initiative. In summary, by keeping the corridor open, global food prices were reduced, and more importantly, serious crises in food access were averted.

First, the pandemic period, and then the war caused everyone's attention to turn to basic food products. In the beginning, due to panicked countries hoarding foodstuff due to the pandemic, the decrease in food exports, and then the disruptions in the supply chains caused led to global crises in accessing processed and unprocessed food products. These supply issues have pushed global food prices up rapidly.

The Russia-Ukraine War, which broke out at a time when food prices were high, caused the supply problem to deepen this time. In other words, the period of serious problems in access to food has begun, even if the fee is paid. The Grain Corridor created with Türkiye's initiative came to the rescue in such a period. Without the grain corridor today, despite skyrocketing food prices, difficulties in accessing food would have continued.

Let's start by defining two concepts that are often confused and misused. The first of these two concepts is “food safety”. Food safety refers to the conditions and practices that preserve the quality of food to prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses such as chemical, biological and physical pests.

Meanwhile, Food security is defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as “ all people, at all times, having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”

I explained the definition of food security in detail above. Based on this definition, we can easily state that Türkiye plays a strategic role in ensuring the food security of the world by paving the way for the grain corridor and keeping it operational. I leave it to your discretion how the world media would react if any European country played such a strategic role.