Today's news of attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure reinforces the conviction that Russia is using food as a weapon of war. Grain prices on the world market have already risen, though Simon Baptist of the Economist Intelligence Unit posits that the situation is not as serious as when Russia first struck, before the free passage agreement brokered by Turkey was reached. There have been bumper harvests in Canada and Australia. Besides, there has been a shift to rice in some countries previously dependent on Ukrainian wheat. So there has already been some replacement even in China, previously Ukraine's most important customer, who is taking wheat from Russia as well as expanding her own capacity.
The fact that there is no need to yield to Russia's bullying should not distract from one of the items on Putin's agenda for ending his blockade, the blocking of Russia's access to the SWIFT financial transaction processing system. It seems to me that in this increasingly electronically-connected world of money transfers, there should be an international protocol, above individual national and commercial interests. SWIFT as the current de facto standard can be seen to be used as a weapon of war.
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