INTERVIEW
Hunger more dangerous than the coronavirus: it is the cry of distress heard in the four corners of the planet in recent days during demonstrations, riots and looting of populations in need of food as in India, Africa and Latin America. The alert was also launched by the Director of the World Food Program (WFP), who reports to the United Nations.
Twice as many people are at risk of starvation this year due to the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. In total, 250 million people are threatened, twice the number of people currently "in critical hunger", says Bruno Parmentier, engineer and economist, at the microphone of "It happened this week" on Europe 1 .
Specializing in agricultural and food issues, he recalls that around "800 million people on earth are hungry, a figure that has been stable for almost a century and that 1,000 people die from it every day. And according to him," he risks "there are more hungry people on earth than coronavirus"
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"Countries absolutely must continue to export grains"
The coronavirus crisis could indeed worsen this already heavy toll, in particular if the grain-producing countries stop exporting them. This is one of the major risks according to Bruno Parmentier. A decision that could intervene "if they lose their temper or if they want to speculate, because if the trade freezes, prices will go up. But for the moment I have the impression that it is rather the coolness "that is at stake, he believes, explaining that it was this fear that prompted all United Nations organizations to sound the alarm. "The food of a good part of poor humanity depends on composure and the will to sell from barely twenty countries," he said.
Among the main wheat producers are the European Union, including France, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Canada. For corn: the United States, Brazil and Argentina. Finally, Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand are the main producers of rice. "These countries must absolutely continue to export," warns Bruno Parmentier.
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And for good reason, in the world, only twenty countries are able to export more cereals than they produce. The vast majority of states indeed produce less than what they eat, like those which do not have enough land and too much population, like Bangladesh which imports a lot of rice. Similarly, "Egypt is a big country, but it is a desert crossed by a river. There are 100 million inhabitants who cannot be fed with only 4% of cultivable land", deplores Bruno Parmentier . "Each year, Egypt is the first or second world importer of wheat. If we block our wheat, we who can produce more, the Egyptians will be hungry," he analyzes. Cereals are the main food, especially for the poor who only eat rice, cassava and bread.
Commodity movement disrupted by containment
But the engineer specializing in the food industry is reassuring on one point. "The situation with grain stocks is pretty good. The past four years have had good harvests, more than we have consumed. The situation is therefore much better than in 2007 or 2010, when the same problems arose. caused the Arab Revolutions because the price of wheat had doubled, "he said. And according to him, the 2020 crop forecast looks "pretty good". "Normally, if no one loses his temper, there is enough to feed humanity," he added.
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But another difficulty exists and is exacerbated by the coronavirus: the transportation of food to remote villages. "There can be a lot going on until the boat arrives and unloads ... Especially since there is this absolute novelty which is that we are confined," explains Bruno Parmentier. A confinement that cannot be scrupulously respected among the poorest populations and who are forced to leave their homes to go to work, earn money and get enough to eat.