Its general secretary UN António Guterres and his team are working on expanding and extending the agreement allowing the export of grain from Ukrainewhich expires at the end of November, its spokesman Stefan Duzarich said today.

“The secretary general’s teams have started intensive contacts on these issues. Guterres and his team are hard at work expanding the Black Sea Grain Initiative. They are also hard at work removing the last obstacles to facilitate the export of Russian grain and fertilizer,” Dujarric said, adding that the head of the humanitarian United Nations Department Martin Griffiths and Rebecca Greenspan, chief UN trade representative, they will travel to Moscow “in about a week to discuss this issue with senior Russian officials.”

“The secretary general spends a lot of time on the phone, unraveling the situation in various bureaucracies that prevent this trade in Russian fertilizers and grain from being promoted,” the spokesman assured.

World food prices continued to decline for the sixth month in a row in September, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said today.

But the FAO Cereal Price Index rose slightly by 1.5% from August. World wheat prices rose 2.2% due to drought concerns in the US and Argentina, as well as uncertainty over the extension of the Black Sea Initiative beyond November.

Source: APE/MEB