Russia and Ukraine have been called the world’s breadbasket – top exporters of among other things — wheat, maize, corn and barley.

But as the conflict in Ukraine continues, the world has been hit with commodity shortages and skyrocketing prices. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of a looming global food crisis. In Ankara, Turkish and Russian officials failed to reach agreement on a bid to unblock grain exports from Ukraine. While both sides voiced support for a safe corridor in the Black Sea, no concrete steps were announced. CGTN’s Michal Bardavid has a report. 

To discuss:

• Vladimir Golstein heads the Slavic Studies department at Brown University.
• Mirette Mabrouk is a Senior Fellow and the Founding Director of the Middle East Institute’s Egypt program.
• Simon Ateba is the Chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa.
• Michael Hage is an international food security and development analyst. He served as North Africa Regional Director for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

For more:

Turkey struggles to push Russia, Ukraine into grain deal to avert food crisis https://t.co/Lz78qTBSvX pic.twitter.com/9TdLUJgAlq

— Reuters (@Reuters) June 8, 2022

Ukrainian and Russian forces battled fiercely for control of a key eastern city Wednesday, while fears of a global food crisis escalated as millions of tons of grain pile up inside the besieged country, unable to be exported by sea because of the war. https://t.co/x9Gfk4ITsX

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) June 9, 2022

It's not just Ukrainian grain supplies that are under threat, European Union harvests are expected to be down this year adding to the global shortage https://t.co/hiuJHVuQ0u

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 9, 2022