IAMO Policy Brief 41: EU and the Black Sea Region and the global food security.

The new IAMO Policy Brief (No 41), co-authored by former EEGA Fellow Dr. Osama Naser El-Din Ahmed, highlights the growing responsibility of the EU and the Black Sea Region for ensuring global food security.

IAMO researchers Osama Ahmed, Thomas Glauben, Maximilian Heigermoser and Sören Prehn look at current developments in global wheat trade and discuss the new role of the EU and the Black Sea Region as leading wheat exporters. The IAMO Policy Brief highlights the gained „leadership role“ of the Black Sea region (especially Russia) and the EU in the international wheat markets; not least in the booming demand markets in North Africa (MENA) and South-West Asia. This applies to the physical markets as well as, more recently, to the futures markets. The letter emphasises the increasing responsibility of the Black Sea region and the EU for global food security. In this context, it points to the need for undisturbed trade relations and stresses the dangers posed by escalating economic sanctions and counter-sanctions, especially between the major Western and Eastern economies. At the same time, he calls for an objectification of the political and public debates conducted in this regard.

IAMO Policy Brief 41 is available in German, English and Russian: www.iamo.de/publikationen/iamo-policy-briefs.