USDA publishes dashboard analysing grain and oilseed trade in the Black Sea

“Millions of tonnes of grain are shipped through these international waters each year, making the Black Sea region a major supplier of agricultural commodities worldwide,” the USDA said on 16 May.

Using pre-war data from FAS’s Production, Supply and Distribution database Centre d’Études Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales, the USDA said its Vulnerabilities to Trade Disruption dashboard highlighted the impact that disruption to Black Sea trade could have on access to food in a range of countries.

The analysis focuses on key commodities, including barley, corn, soyabean oil, sunflowerseed oil and wheat. For each country, the largest suppliers are shown, which allows the dashboard to illustrate the potential impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine has had a major impact on grain and oilseed exports from the Black Sea region,” USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis M Taylor said.

“By looking at the Vulnerabilities to Trade Disruption dashboard, it becomes very clear how big an impact Russia’s war has on food security in countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as many countries in these regions import a significant portion of their grains and oilseeds from Ukraine and Russia.”

The USDA said the dashboard was complementary to the Russia Grain and Oilseed Exports Expand trade report published by FAS in earlier in the month [May].

“Since the beginning of this unjustified war, the Russian government has significantly reduced the transparency of its trade data, requiring USDA analysts to find additional data sources to accurately measure agricultural trade in the region,” the USDA said.

Tags: soyabean oil, Russia, sunflowerseed oil, exports, agricultural commodities, corn, USDA, grain, barley, Oilseed, trade, Black Sea region, wheat, Ukraine