The second meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the
Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) took place in Istanbul earlier
this week.
The meeting was devoted to the theme of sustainable
development, food systems, the future of aquaculture, and included discussions on food security for future
generations, the development of regional trade, and reducing the negative
impact on the environment.
During the meeting, the ministers touched upon the
issue of price volatility of agricultural products and agreed that price
stability is a very important goal for the BSEC region.
Considering that Russia and Ukraine collectively produce
around 12% of the worlds wheat crop and Russia ranks fourth in the world in terms of wheat
production after the EU, China and India, and ahead of the US, then any efforts to try and smooth out price volatility could have far reaching consequences.
(BSEC member countries are Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia,
Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine
with observing countries including Austria, Belarus, Egypt, Germany, Israel,
Italy, Poland, Slovakia, the United States, Tunisia, France, Croatia, the
Czech Republic and the European Commission.)