UN warns of depletion of grain and corn stocks in 2023
“More than three months of war and export barriers have kept Ukraine’s food out of the world, and the United Nations warns that all of us, the whole world, are possible,” Fortune wrote on its website, according to IRNA on Monday. Is faced with food shortages.
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country was a major supplier of products such as corn, wheat and barley to world markets. Agricultural production was Ukraine’s first source of export revenue, accounting for about 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
But wars and barriers in Ukrainian port cities have halted the global food supply chain for these products, and the UN Food Security and Hunger Organization warns that a food crisis could ensue if left unchecked.
“In 2023, we will face food shortages,” said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program.
About 25 million tons of grain are waiting to be shipped to international markets in large ports such as Odessa, but cannot leave Ukraine due to the blockade of the Black Sea by Russia.
“I saw silos full of grain, wheat and corn ready to be exported,” Charles Michel tweeted during a recent visit to the port of Odessa. These much-needed food items are lost due to the Russian war and the siege of Black Sea ports.
The blockade of Ukrainian ports will affect any country in the world for an indefinite period of time, but some countries need food imports more than others and are at risk of catastrophic food shortages.
Beasley warned in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that several countries in North and East Africa and the Middle East would face major food security issues in the near future due to the Ukraine war.
The International Human Rights Watch said several countries – including Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Cameroon – relied on at least half of their wheat imports to Ukraine and Russia before the war. If food products get stuck in Ukraine, these countries will see the first and hardest blow from food shortages.
Beasley warned that declining food exports from Ukraine would exacerbate global food insecurity due to factors such as the Corona epidemic, climate crisis and drought, and would affect the world’s most vulnerable areas.