The World Trade Organization, which monitors maritime traffic with the "Wheat maritime shipments dashboard" tool recently developed together with the International Grains Council (IGC), reported on the extent of the recent reduction in this volume of traffic passing through the Suez Canal due to the attacks on ships by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which on an annual basis in the last few years has been two weeks ago it was almost -40%.

The WTO recalled that it is estimated that about 76 million tons of wheat, oilseeds and oilseed products are shipped every year from the European Union, the Russia and Ukraine to Asia and East Africa, a volume that It accounts for 17% of global trade in these commodities. In the December 2023 - specified the World Organization of Trade - about 8% of grain shipments from the EU, Russian Federation and Ukraine to certain Asian countries and of East Africa have taken place through sea routes other than the Suez Canal compared to an average of 3% before December. It is also estimated that during the first half of the January 2024 the share of shipments using alternative routes rose to 42%.

The WTO has specified that grain shipments from the EU through routes other than the Suez Canal have totalled 330,000 tons from the beginning of December 2023 to mid compared to 50,000 tonnes in the same period of the previous year. In the same period December 2023 - mid In addition, by January 2024, around 190,000 tonnes of wheat had been shipped from the Russian Federation and diverted through routes alternatives, alternative routes that were not available in the previous year. fully utilized. On the other hand, in the same period, all the shipments from Ukraine to Asian and African countries continued to transit through the Eastern Channel Suez.

Finally, the WTO pointed out that the latest data also indicate a Certain slowdown in world imports of transported wheat by sea in recent months compared to the previous year, with the cumulative volume in mid-January 2024, which is slightly lower than the previous year. This compares to an increase of +17% year-on-year at the end of August 2023 and an increase in by +6% at the end of October.