Food prices in the world at their highest according to the FAO
Global food prices hit their highest levels on record in March due to the war in Ukraine.
AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Food prices keep rising.
This is the finding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
A situation that can be explained by the “
sharp increases in the prices of wheat and all secondary grains, mainly due to the war in Ukraine
” according to the UN institution.
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Wheat, sunflower, corn: the prices of agricultural raw materials are soaring against a backdrop of conflict in Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine are indeed the main world exporters of these foodstuffs.
The FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, indicates that the index which follows the monthly variation of international prices of a basket of basic food products, recorded in March an increase of 12.6% , which follows an already considerable increase in February.
Black Sea wheat is almost a third of world trade.
Also the blocking of Ukrainian ports, but also the closure to navigation of the
strategic Sea of Azov
for the wheat trade, blocking exports from Berdiansk or even Mariupol, explain this historic high observed by the FAO index and this outbreak. prices since
February 24, the date of the Russian invasion
.
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to
"monitor" food deliveries
to countries "hostile" to the Kremlin.
Ukraine has requested urgent aid for its farmers from the European Union.
The country, ravaged by war, breadbasket of the former USSR, is in the midst of preparing for sowing on at least half of its land.
The European Commission has been mandated by the Twenty-Seven to coordinate shipments, including fuel, seeds, fertilizers or agricultural machinery.
►
Also to listen:
Ukraine, an agricultural monster at the gates of the EU (2 parts)
Food prices are also driven up by vegetable oils, whose FAO index jumped by 23.2%, driven by the rise in the price of sunflower oil, the world's largest exporter of which is also the Ukraine.
The prices of palm, soybean and rapeseed oils, on which many industrialists refer, are rising sharply "
under the effect of an increase in world import demand due to disruptions in the supply of sunflower
”.
Eight to thirteen million more people could suffer from undernutrition in the world if food exports from Ukraine and Russia were permanently prevented by the war,
the FAO had already warned a few days ago
. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
►
To read also:
West Africa: FAO sounds the alarm on the risk of famine
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