The war in Ukraine raises fears of a major food crisis
Ukraine
Published Mar 9, 2022
Tridge summary
If the question of Europe's dependence on Russian gas is at the center of the conflict being played out between Russia and Ukraine, that of wheat is just as sensitive, if not even more worrying. Many countries are indeed very dependent on Ukrainian wheat. Its productions feed the world market because Ukraine has limited domestic needs and can therefore export massively. The country is indeed a grain giant. In 2018, Ukraine was the 5th world producer of corn, the 8th producer of wheat, the first producer of sunflower, the third producer of buckwheat.
Original content
Overall, in the world, 12% of grain exports come from Ukraine. The country is also the world's third largest potato producer. But today, several Ukrainian agricultural products are subject to authorization or quotas to be exported. According to a decree issued on Sunday March 6, a license is now required to export wheat, poultry meat, eggs and sunflower oil. Quotas were also introduced for the export of cattle, cattle meat, salt, sugar, oats, buckwheat, rye, millet. At the same time, six million tons of wheat and nine million tons of corn are currently blocked in Ukrainian ports. And nothing says that this situation will change in the short term. Rising prices combined with export disruptions threaten countries heavily dependent on Ukrainian wheat. This is particularly the case for Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, in 2021, 50% of this wheat came from Russia and 30% from Ukraine. Ukraine also supplies 90% of the wheat consumed in Lebanon. The country also exports a large ...
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