The Federal Association of the German Food Trade (BVLH) has called on Germans not to buy hamsters despite reports of shortages in individual foods such as sunflower oil and flour because of the Ukraine war.
"As at the beginning of the Corona crisis," customers should "behave in solidarity with each other and only buy products in normal household quantities," said association spokesman Christian Böttcher to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND, Tuesday editions).
Böttcher emphasized that the trade association still had no information about a widespread undersupply of sunflower oil in the German retail sector.
However, Ukraine is an important supplier of raw materials for sunflower oil, especially for Germany: "The country accounts for 51 percent of the quantity available on the world market and is one of the most important import countries for Germany."
"If such an important supplier of raw materials fails due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this will certainly not remain without an impact on the markets for long," said Böttcher.
It is also unclear "to what extent rising costs in the preliminary stages as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war will be passed on through the chain".
"However, economists assume that the general increase in food prices will continue for the time being," Böttcher continued. However, longer-term forecasts are currently not possible due to the turbulence on the markets.
The German Trade Association (HDE) recently stated that it does not expect supply bottlenecks due to the Ukraine war.
Like Ukraine, Germany is a food exporter of meat, wheat and dairy products.
Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) also considered the supply to be “secured”, but warned of price increases.
While the effects on Germany are therefore limited, UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently warned of a "hurricane of hunger" worldwide.
The international community must act to prevent a "collapse of the global food system".
More than half of the World Food Program (WFP) wheat shipments come from Ukraine.
Most developing countries depend on wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine.