Droughts and Ukraine war push global grain stocks toward worrying decade low
Published Sep 27, 2022
Tridge summary
By the end of the 2022/23 crop year, the world’s buffer stocks of corn will be enough for just 80 days’ worth of consumption, down 28% from five years ago and the lowest level since 2010/11, according to figures compiled for Reuters by the International Grains Council, an intergovernmental organization. That would be fewer days of corn stocks than the world had in 2012, when the last global food crisis spurred riots. Policymakers are worried.
Original content
The World Bank has earmarked $30 billion to help offset food shortages worsened by war, and U.S. President Joe Biden last week announced nearly $3 billion in additional funding to combat global food insecurity. Half a million Somali children face hunger in the worst famine anywhere this century, according to the United Nations, as a severe drought grips the Horn of Africa. Thousands of miles away in the United States, South Dakota corn grower Mark Gross expects to harvest as few as 20 bushels per acre on some fields this autumn, down more than 80% from the local average last year, after drought and fierce winds ravaged his land. Gross said the weather remained too dry in the spring and then two derecho windstorms brought destructive 100-mile-per-hour (160 kph) gusts across fields in Hutchinson County and southeastern parts of the state. “It’s lining up to be like 2012,” Gross said. “No one wants to admit it, but it’s true.” Tight grain supplies reflect the impact of climate change ...
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