A global food crisis elicited by the war in Ukraine could last for years without intervention, indicated WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala reports BBC.
"You can imagine what a big impact this is going to have, even just on the African continent," Okonio-Iweala told the news source. "I hope that we don't go into a really severe food crisis for the next couple of years."
Okonjo-Iweala further posited that wheat and fertilizer shortages can hit African countries harder. The war has prevented the export of millions of tons of grain and ceased the production and dissemination of many types of fertilizers and fertilizer key ingredients.
Ukraine contributes to 9 percent of the global wheat market, as well as 42 percent of the global sunflower oil market, and 16 percent of the global maize market, all of which are deeply affected by Russian blockades and other war-related externalities. The decreased supply has caused the prices of these items to skyrocket.
Although the UN is trying to establish a “grain corridor” with Turkish naval escorts, mines pose an issue for safe passage across black seaports, and removing them is a long, potentially dangerous process.
Okonjo called on world leaders to relax food-related export restrictions, to abate the price spikes exacerbated by COVID-19 and labor shortage supply chain bottlenecks. Full Story
Related: Uber Delivers Food in Ukraine; Panel: War in Ukraine’s Impact on the Global Food System