Accusing Russia of “Export of Hunger” completely groundless: Ambassador 

Addis Ababa, October 11, 2022 (FBC) – Addressing the High-Level Food Security and Nutrition Conference organized by the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ambassador of Russia to Ethiopia, Evgeny Terekhin said the food security degradation in Africa and the world at large turned out to be a result of a number of negative factors, such as climate change, increase in the number and intensity of natural disasters, ongoing and emerging conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We believe that the crisis phenomena of recent years in the world agricultural market are closely connected with systematic mistakes in the economic and food policy pursued by the collective West.”

Negative factors also include accelerated transition of a number of countries to “green energy” at the expense of traditional fuels, reduced investments in oil and gas refining and gradual abandonment of nuclear power, all of which led to a sharp rise in energy prices. 

The already difficult situation has been worsened by unprecedented anti-Russian sanctions, which have seriously deepened the breakdown of logistics, financial and insurance chains, practically blocking Russian exports, the Ambassador said. 

It is certain that accusing Russia of “export of hunger” are completely groundless and are undertaken just as an attempt to obscure the real causes of the food crisis, he added.

Within the framework of the “Black Sea Initiative” from August 1 to October 7 only, 285 ships were able to use the safe corridor, transporting almost 6.5 million tons of Ukrainian food products. 

“However, contrary to the initial UN Secretary General appeal to feed Africa and Asia, the main bulk of these food-staffs was delivered to the Netherlands, Italy, South Korea, Romania, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland and some other countries, which are far from suffering from starvation. They have received 56% of all shipments.”

The efforts of the United Nations to ensure real exemptions for our exports are still “drowning” in the most bureaucratic procedures of the EU and the United States, the Ambassador noted.

Saying that the Russian Federation is one of its largest suppliers with 27 million tons share in the global volume, the Ambassador added that due to Western sanctions, 7 to 8 million tons of fertilizers and raw materials, sufficient to produce food for at least 100 million people, remain blocked at transshipment terminals. 

“We responsibly declare that the Russian Federation has been and remains a bona fide and reliable participant of the world food market. We supply our products to 160 countries of the world, including the most food-insecure of them. We are ready to meet our obligations under international contracts in full.”