Russia, Ukraine to discuss prospects of Black Sea grain pool on October 12

MOSCOW - The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia and the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine plan to continue their discussion of the prospects for a Black Sea grain pool in Moscow on October 12.

This issue was first discussed in Kyiv last week at a meeting of Russia's Deputy Agriculture Minister Ilya Shestakov and his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksandr Sen, the Russian Agriculture Ministry's press service reported.

The Black Sea grain pool is designed as a coordinating agency for the exchange of information in order to ensure a competitive advantage for Russia and Ukraine on the world grain market.

"The establishment of the council will also help increase the total production of cereal crops in the member countries, strengthen and develop export opportunities, use export infrastructure more efficiently and reduce export costs," the ministry said in a press release.

In the long term, the council's work will allow the development of uniform trade rules, common approaches to grain exports, a coordinated investment policy, and implementing joint projects to develop grain market infrastructure in third countries.

The parties decided to discuss at the next meeting of the Russian-Ukrainian subcommittee on agriculture the possibility of renewing the work of the interdepartmental working group on the coordinated development of the grain market in Russia and Ukraine.

It is planned that the meeting will be chaired by the Russian and Ukrainian agriculture ministers, Nikolai Fedorov and Mykola Prysiazhniuk.