President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said Türkiye had helped avert a global food crisis with a grain deal that allowed shipments of Ukrainian grain to international markets.
The landmark deal, brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye in July 2022, offered a reprieve from the food crisis by allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain and bringing down global prices.
"With the Black Sea (grain) initiative initiated together with the U.N., we prevented the danger of a global hunger crisis by ensuring that 33 million tons of grain products were shipped to world markets," Erdoğan said in a video message while addressing the World Food Day 2023 event.
"We continue our efforts to alleviate the burden of regions at risk of hunger, especially Africa," he noted.
Russia quit the grain deal in July, complaining that not enough was being done to improve its own exports.
Since then, Kyiv has launched what it calls a temporary humanitarian corridor to break Russia’s de facto blockade.
Türkiye, which is among the "most generous" countries in the world in terms of development aid, will not hesitate to assume responsibility for finding a solution to any problem, including food and water crises, the president added.
World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year worldwide on Oct. 16 to commemorate the date of the founding of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. This year’s theme is "Water is Life, Water is Food. Leave No One Behind."
"We do not see any difference in nature between protecting water and protecting our homeland. For this purpose, as the government, we have implemented many important projects that will guarantee water and food security of our country in the last 21 years," Erdoğan said.
The president said that humanity is gradually moving away from the "Zero Hunger in 2030" approach, which is among the most important topics of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
According to the FAO, one in every nine people in the world is struggling with hunger, the Turkish president said, adding, "However, 4 to 5 billion tons of food are produced annually worldwide. While this amount is calculated to be enough for the world population predicted for 2050; unfortunately, it is not enough for today’s world population because 21 tons of the 127 tons of food produced every second around the world is wasted."
On the other hand, he said, wasted food causes water resources to be consumed rapidly.
Erdoğan also invited all his colleagues to take the initiative toward the goal of "zero food loss," which is one of the components of the Zero Waste project initiated by Turkish First Lady Emine Erdoğan and turned into a global movement under the umbrella of the U.N.
"Let’s start from today, Oct. 16, World Food Day, not tomorrow; let’s respect food and end food waste," Erdoğan stressed.