The scheme to prevent famine in Africa may have benefited producers of Spanish pork ham instead. Advertised as “helping feed” Africa and Asia, the Ukrainian grain ended up fattening the pricey pigs of Spain, an Austrian outlet says.
Almost half of the Ukrainian wheat and corn exports to the EU ended up feeding the pigs in Spain to produce the world-famous and expensive jamon, according to an investigation by the Austrian outlet eXXpress. The bloc ended up accounting for most of Kiev’s grain exports, even though the Black Sea corridor was advertised as a way to feed Africa and Asia.
An estimated 2.9 million tons of wheat and corn from Ukraine ended up in Spain, where it was used as animal feed, the Austrian outlet said on Monday. According to eXXpress, only 15% of the exports ended up in the countries at risk of famine, including 167,000 tons in Ethiopia and 65,000 tons in Sudan.
“Spain paid more money – and Ukraine delivered,” the outlet said.
After months of Kiev and its Western backers accusing Russia of “blockading” the Ukrainian ports, the UN and Türkiye negotiated an arrangement for exporting grain from both Ukraine and Russia, via special corridors in the Black Sea. The “grain deal” announced in August last year was presented as a way to avoid famine in parts of Africa and Asia, dependent on imports from Russia and Ukraine that were disrupted by both the conflict and Western sanctions.
From the very beginning, however, things did not go as advertised. The grain from Ukraine ended up being animal feed, and was shipped mainly to European ports and Türkiye. By December, Russian officials were saying that 6.4 million tons of Ukrainian grain had been exported to the EU, of which 43% was corn and 29% wheat.
Moscow is not happy with the grain deal, either, as the portion that envisioned lifting the restrictions on Russian grain and fertilizer exports has simply been ignored by the West. The US and its allies say they never sanctioned these products. While that is technically true, their embargo has banned all Russian ships from docking in their ports, or accessing insurance and brokerage services, in effect imposing a total blockade on commercial shipping.
Spanish jamon is touted as “the finest ham in the world,” commanding premium prices on the export market. The most expensive variety, Jamon Iberico de Bellota, comes from free-range pigs that feed on acorns. The vast majority of pigs, however, are raised on industrial farms on corn-based feed.
Seeking to bolster the government in Kiev, the EU had also suspended all tariffs and taxes on Ukrainian agricultural goods. The temporary arrangement was rolled out in May 2022 and is due to expire in June this year. Poland, Hungary and Romania – all of which border Ukraine – are reportedly lobbying against extending the deal, complaining that it has “disrupted competitiveness in the region” and flooded their markets with cheap Ukrainian goods, Read More
Last month Erdogan announced: Putin To Provide Turkiye With Free Grain & Flour To Send To African Countries
In January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkiye is determined to send flour and grain to African states through the Black Sea corridor.
He added that the Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Ankara that Russia would be able to provide grain for free on the condition that it is transferred to underdeveloped countries in Africa.
Erdogan further disclosed that 44 percent of the total grain sent to Europe comes from Ukraine, adding that Turkiye is determined to increase its efforts to deliver grain to Africa via the Black Sea corridor.
Turkey has remained neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict yet affirms that Ankara does not recognize Moscow’s “annexation” of Ukrainian territories and is currently constructing a factory in Ukraine set to manufacture Bayraktar attack drones, used against Russian forces.
In November 2022, Putin considered Turkiye as a hub for delivering Russian gas, given Moscow’s complications in dealing with Europe following its operation in Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
The Nord Stream gas leaks were a series of explosions and subsequent underwater gas leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines on 26 September 2022.
According to Refinitiv, Turkiye increased its Russian oil imports to over 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 compared to 98,000 bpd in 2021.
Cunning move, as this goes against Gates, and W.E.F, expectations, of starving the African countries, of grain. and blaming the Ukraine war, and the African countries voted against the new WHO, take over, and the African countries who wouldn’t, buy the Vaccines, and used alternate treatments, eg; Ivomec pills, Putin is awake to what they are trying to achieve, The Cradle reports.