It is unclear if the Black Sea grain deal will be renewed. NDSU Extension Crops Economist Frayne Olson says this is just one of many dynamics at play in the region. There’s also a bottleneck at Istanbul due to a lack of workers to inspect the grain shipments. “There’s work happening on that now.” The markets are jittery with the USDA reports saying the wheat crop wasn’t as big as expected. There are also uncertainties about the availability of fertilizer. “In the Northern Plains, we don’t buy a lot of that fertilizer, but because the supplies coming out of Russia are lower, it means the competition in the global market for supplies is higher.”
