Resolving Ukraine export grain crisis could be key to ending war

If the grain fails to reach the world market soon, price rises will put alternate food resources beyond the reach of the poorest and thousands will die of hunger

Farmers carry a Russian rocket fragment on a sunflower field in Donetsk region. Russian hostilities in Ukraine are preventing grain from leaving the 'breadbasket of the world' and making food more expensive across the globe, threatening to worsen shortages, hunger and political instability in developing countries. Picture: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

The world is heading towards a recession triggered by the war in Ukraine and its related sanctions, the disruption of industrial and agricultural activities in China, volatile stock markets, a slowdown in world trade, and sharp rises in inflation.

The single most negative development is the ongoing failure to export grain from Ukraine.