In their final declaration during the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the leaders of the member countries welcomed Russia's initiative to establish a BRICS grain exchange to ensure resilience of commodity supply chains and guarantee unimpeded trade. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it will help protect national markets from external interference and speculation.
"This is an interesting proposition as the BRICS countries (now Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates) are somewhat evenly split between grain exporters and grain importers," Moseley, who is a former steering committee member of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, said.
At the same time, the expert said it was still unclear if this initiative would work better than existing trade arrangements and who would benefit more from using this exchange—the grain buyers or sellers.
He also drew attention to the issue of geography, or the spatial pattern of trade, as many grain markets are more regional in nature, meaning, for example, that while Russia can export grain to Egypt and Ethiopia via the Black Sea, it's unclear whether these two countries can have a similar relationship with Brazil.
"At the end of the day, becoming too heavily reliant on imported grain is a problem because inevitably there will be a disruption. Promoting trade within this group is not the solution to food insecurity, but encouraging countries to produce more food within their own borders. This is a particular issue for African countries like Ethiopia and Egypt (BRICS countries) that have become overly dependent on grain imports," Moseley concluded.
BRICS is an intergovernmental association which Brazil, Russia, India, and China created in 2006, and South Africa joined in 2010. The group had its second expansion this year, admitting Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The latter has reportedly not formalized its membership but has been taking part in BRICS meetings.
The Russian city of Kazan hosted a top-level BRICS summit from October 22-24 as part of Russia's 2024 chairmanship of the bloc. Moscow has focused its chairmanship on the strengthening of multipolarity for just global development and security.