China News Service, March 20. According to Euronet, citing a report by Euronews on the 20th, affected by the situation in Ukraine, hoarding has occurred in some parts of Europe.
In northern Italy, some supermarkets are running out of pasta, while some Norwegian pharmacies are running out of iodine tablets.
Ukraine and Russia are reported to be important global suppliers of wheat, rapeseed and flaxseed, as well as soybeans for edible oils and animal feed.
Half of global sunflower oil exports come from Ukraine.
According to the German Oilseed Processing Industry Association, nearly 90 percent of flaxseed processed in the EU is imported.
The company said the situation in Ukraine could lead to shortages of edible oil and animal feed, for which replacements would be difficult to find in the short term.
Currently, the prices of bread, pasta and meat in Italy are already rising.
The country imports a large amount of wheat from Eastern Europe and a large amount of sunflower oil from Ukraine.
Sabrina Di Leto, 50, north of Milan, said last week she bought 20 packets of pasta and a few kilograms of flour for a rainy day and is considering converting her backyard into a vegetable garden and Chicken coops to be self-sufficient in the event of a shortage of food supplies.
Some German grocers have been forced to limit sales of cooking oil to prevent a new round of food price hikes.
A sign outside a supermarket in Frankfurt read: Please unite, think of your neighbours and stop hoarding unnecessary items.
In Norway, there has been a panic buying of iodine tablets.
More than 1.7 million tablets have been sold in recent weeks, and pharmacies won't have more supplies until next month.
Iodine tablets are said to be used to combat the effects of radiation.
Not all of Europe was in panic buying, though.
Carrefour, a retailer with large operations in France, Spain and Italy, said it had never experienced the shortages seen at the start of the pandemic.
The company also said that some people in France were hoarding sunflower oil, and in Spain the situation was more serious, and in some places, it had been sold out, but overall the behavior was still negligible and the market was functioning mostly normal.
(Boyuan)