The war affects the bread of the Arabs.. These are the Arab countries most dependent on Russian and Ukrainian wheat

London 

- With the beginning of the military operation in Russia, the financial and economic markets witnessed a real shock, with which stocks collapsed, and oil prices rose to unprecedented levels, and the matter will not stop there, as the repercussions of this military operation will extend the bread of the Arab citizen.

Bread - the vital and basic ingredient in the Arab table - will be subjected to a violent shake because it is related to two of the most important wheat exporters in the world;

Russia and Ukraine.

There are Arab countries that rely heavily on these two countries to supply their needs of wheat, and even those that do not depend on the two countries will experience a rise in wheat prices.

In the following paragraphs, we will show the extent to which the Arab wheat basket depends on Russian and Ukrainian exports, according to the data of the global wheat market for the year 2019-2020 issued by the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

Are Russia and Ukraine the most important wheat exporters?

Yes, because Russia is the largest exporter of wheat in the world. In 2019, Russian exports accounted for 18.4% of global exports, with a value of $8.1 billion.

As for Ukraine, it is the fifth exporter of wheat in the world, and its exports amount to 7.03% of world exports, with a value of 3.1 billion dollars.

This means that the total wheat exported from the two countries amounts to 25% of the world's wheat, meaning that a quarter of the world's wheat basket is found in these two countries.

What are the most important Arab countries importing wheat?

Egypt is the largest wheat importer in the world, as it alone imports 10.6% of the total global wheat exports, with a total financial envelope of $4.67 billion in 2019, and the annual consumption is 18 million tons.

Then there is Algeria, which imports 3.3% of the total world wheat exports, with a total of 1.47 billion dollars, and the annual consumption of wheat in Algeria is 10.8 million tons.

In third place is Morocco, which imports 2.05% of world wheat exports, at about one billion dollars annually, and the annual consumption of wheat in Morocco is 10.4 million tons.

Then there is Yemen, which imports 2.3% of the total global exports of wheat, Saudi Arabia by 1.6%, and Sudan by 1%.

In total, the Arab countries alone monopolize about 25% of world wheat exports;

Which shows the extent of dependence on imports to obtain wheat.

What is the extent of Arab countries' dependence on Russian and Ukrainian wheat?

Many Arab countries rely heavily on Russian and Ukrainian wheat.

For example, Egypt gets 54.5% of its wheat needs from Russia, and imports 14.7% of its wheat needs from Ukraine, which means that Egypt gets 70% of its wheat needs from the two countries.

As for Morocco, it depends on Russian wheat to provide 10.5% of wheat, and from Ukraine 19.5%;

I mean, almost a third of Morocco's need for wheat is supplied by Russia and Ukraine.

As for Sudan, it depends very heavily on Russian wheat, and imports about 46% of Russia alone, while it does not import Ukrainian wheat.

As for Yemen, it gets 31% of wheat from Russia and 6.8% from Ukraine, meaning more than a third of Yemen's basket of wheat comes from these two countries.

Tunisia relies heavily on Ukrainian wheat, and it constitutes about half (48%) of Tunisia's wheat imports, while it imports a weak percentage from Russia (3.97%).

As for Jordan, it does not depend on Russian wheat. In contrast, it imports 11% of its needs from Ukraine, and gets 86% from Romania.

What are the Arab countries that import the most Russian wheat?

So far, Russian wheat imports have not been affected, but prices will be affected by the current war in Ukraine, especially with the increase in Western sanctions against Russia, which may impose more restrictions on trade relations with it.

Egypt is the world's largest importer of Russian wheat, accounting for 31.3% of the total Russian exports of wheat, or about a third of the Russian wheat destined for export, which Egypt obtains.

Then comes the rest of the Arab countries, such as Yemen, which imports about 4% of the total Russian exports, then there is Sudan with 2.5%, Morocco with 1.1%, and the UAE with 1.8%.

In general, the Arab countries monopolize 42% of Russian wheat.

What are the Arab countries that import the most Ukrainian wheat?

Egypt is the largest importer of Ukrainian wheat with 22%, then Tunisia with 6.3%, and Morocco with 5.7% of the total Ukrainian exports of wheat.

In general, the Arab countries account for more than 38% of Ukrainian wheat, or more than a third of the Ukrainian wheat basket destined for export.