Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is back in the states after the G7 Ag Minister’s meeting in Japan. While there, he spoke about the importance of keeping the Black Sea ports open as well as finding alternative ways to get grain out of Ukraine.
“There were important, and I think, deep conversations concerning the situation in Ukraine. Obviously, we continue to be critical of Russia utilizing, from time-to-time, food as a weapon of war and threatening to interfere with the Black Sea route for Ukrainian grain. I think we agreed as a G7 group the importance of making sure that the Ukrainian grain is made available for people in Africa and the Middle East, and expressed ethnic support for the notion of strengthening alternative routes overland, perhaps through Romania, to utilize their port structures and systems. I suspect and anticipate that we’re going to continue to see not only additional U.S. support for alternative routes, but EU support as well.”
Climate-smart ag production was another big topic at the Summit. Vilsack says the entire trip reinforced the direction USDA is taking and he feels the U.S. is in a good place to be competitive in trade.
