Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is generating multiple externalities on various issues, one of which will be the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO; another one is vital: a food crisis.
And it’s not just the invasion of Ukraine, it’s also the weather.
India on Saturday banned wheat exports after estimating it would have record shipments this year as a scorching heat wave cut output and domestic prices hit an all-time high.
Global traders were betting on supplies from the world’s second-largest wheat producer after exports from the Black Sea region plummeted following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Before the ban, India had aimed to ship a record 10 million tonnes this year.
The rise in food prices has multiple causes, several of them prior to the invasion, but Putin’s decision plays a crucial role in exacerbating it because it has shaken the energy market and altered the export flows of Ukraine and Russia.
The UN Secretary General recalled last week that “food prices have never been higher, we are facing hunger on an unprecedented scale.”
The World Bank estimates that, for every percentage point of increase in the price of food, 10 million people fall into a situation of extreme poverty.
The index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has marked an increase of almost 20 percentage points in April compared to January, the month before the invasion, and about 30 compared to the same month of the year above, publishes El País (May 15).
The price increase has led thousands of people in Sir Lanka to take to the streets. In Pakistan, it caused the change of government.