World food prices hit their “highest levels on record” in March as war in Ukraine disrupts grain and vegetable oil markets, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on Friday. agriculture (FAO).
Wheat, sunflower, but: the prices of agricultural raw materials continue to soar, against a backdrop of the stalemate of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the main world exporters of these foodstuffs, coupled with a threat to the next harvests .
This FAO index, which tracks the monthly change in the international prices of a basket of basic food products, had already broken its record in February since its creation in 1990, and recorded a 12.6% increase in March.
In March, it was the FAO cereals index that drove the increase, with a growth of 17.1% compared to February “under the effect of strong increases in the prices of wheat and all coarse grains”.
The blocking of Ukrainian ports, kyiv being the world’s fifth largest exporter of wheat, explains this historic high and this surge in prices since February 24, the date of the Russian invasion.
From the beginning of the conflict, the Sea of Azov was closed to navigation, blocking exports from Berdiansk or even Mariupol.
In addition, maize prices also “registered a monthly increase of 19.1%, reaching a record level, as did those of barley and sorghum,” said the FAO in its March report.
Ukraine on Thursday called for urgent EU aid for its farmers, as conflict ravages the country as it prepares 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, listed Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.
Risk of global food crisis
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”, which is the world’s largest exporter. ‘Ukraine.
At the same time, 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 supply shortages. ‘supply of sunflower oil’.
In France, the shelves of oils, flours or pasta in stores have been subject for a few weeks to more supply tensions, due in particular to precautionary purchases by consumers fearing stock shortages.
Another source of concern, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Tuesday to “monitor” food deliveries to countries “hostile” to the Kremlin, in the midst of a wave of sanctions against Moscow.
As a result of the conflict, the famine in the Sahel and West Africa, a region heavily dependent on imports of Russian and Ukrainian cereals, could worsen further and affect 38.3 million people by June in the absence of appropriate measures, says the FAO.
At the call of the President of Niger Mohamed Bazoum, several countries including the United States and France promised on Wednesday to increase their aid for the populations of this area to the tune of 1.79 billion euros.
Member States also announced at the end of March the launch of an initiative called “Farm”, in order to alleviate food shortages in the countries most at risk and to combat speculation.