
AI-generated summary
The world food price index, which reached an all-time high in March 2022 in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has recently shown an upward trend again.
Rising pressure on grain prices likely to continue
(Rome = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kyung-rak Min = Despite US President Donald Trump's call for an 'energy truce', Russia continued its attacks targeting Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
According to Reuters on the 12th (local time), the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it struck a ship transporting military supplies to Odessa, Ukraine, on the Black Sea coast.
He added, “Drone attacks against Ukrainian port infrastructure continued.”
Ukraine has been requesting a 'Black Sea maritime ceasefire' from Russia, saying that the target of the ceasefire that President Trump has been calling for should include the Black Sea, a grain export route.
As Russia focuses its attacks on ports along the Black Sea and Danube Rivers in Ukraine during the harvest season for grains such as wheat, upward pressure on grain prices appears to be increasing.
The September world food price index announced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) earlier this month was 136.0, up 5.8% from the same period last year. Although it is lower than the all-time high in March 2022 (160.2) in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is the highest since November 2022 (136.0).
As President Trump claimed on the 11th that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a ceasefire in the energy sector, attention is focused on whether both sides will actually implement the ceasefire. In particular, tensions remain as no specific targets or duration of the ceasefire are mentioned.
With neither Russia nor Ukraine clearly stating whether an agreement will be reached in response to President Trump's claim of a 'ceasefire agreement', some are interpreting it as a pressuring remark by President Trump aimed at lowering energy prices ahead of the US midterm elections.
President Trump made the same claim on the 14th of last month, saying that both sides decided not to strike energy targets, but attacks from both sides continued thereafter.

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