World's Food Crisis Deepens

Ukraine is the largest food supplier of the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP distributes food for 125 million people in over 80 countries worldwide. If the fields in Ukraine are not worked now, there will be no harvest and grain exports through Ukraine's ports will remain blocked because of the war, situations for many states and crisis zones will become very critical.

According to W Director FP, David Beasley, Afghanistan, Egypt and Syria are particularly dependent on imports from Ukraine. Millions are in danger, he warns. The price hikes have also caused shortages in the Middle East and East Africa, Beasley said after talks with the European Union and France at the World Food Programme headquarters in Rome.

“Now we are talking about a conflict in the world's bread basket, because Ukraine produces food for about 400 million people worldwide”, the UN programme director said. Even before the Russian attack in Ukraine, fuel, food, and garbage prices have increased enormously. With current escalation, we're experiencing the perfect “storm”, says David Beatrice.

The World Trade Organisation (OBT) expects wheat prices to rise by 85 per cent worldwide due to a failed harvest in Ukraine. Beasley estimates that the gap in financing for his organisation's assistance will be between eight and nine billion dollars a year because of the price increase. And the UN agency suffers from a continuing lack of money, because there is no fixed budget. It relies on government donations.

EU to buy cereals worldwide

“How do we compensate for the reduced Ukraine harvest? How can we replace food, grain that may no longer be produced in Ukraine? We must act now,” said the head of the WFP.

It is not the first time the European Union and France have heard urgent warnings from David Beasley and his associates. But the war in Ukraine makes the situation very dramatic. Therefore, the French government and the EU Commission want to unite all actors by the end of June and create what the EU bureaucratic lingo calls a “mechanism mobilization”. This is a kind of crisis team that will buy grain worldwide and collect a lot of donations to the World Food Programme.

The “Commission will now address the problem together with EU member states. First with emergency measures and then we want to get to the root of the problem and try to bring all parties, namely aid organisations, humanitarian workers, donors and affected states”, EU Commissioner for Relief for Disasters Janez Lenzic promised at the meeting in Rome. However, it leaves open the possibility of functioning.

Even French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who currently holds the EU presidency, gave no specific figures for the aid money. It is important to act now in order to avoid a future emergency scenario. Through the mechanism of mobilization, we must prevent an international crisis that would be devastating to the world. ”

The Food Crisis Moves People to Leave

It is not just grain exports but also garbage, for example. About 40 per cent of the world's used artificial waste has so far come from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Belarusan ruler Alexander Lukashenko said during a visit to Russia that lack of waste exports could soon lead to a global famine crisis. He blamed sanctions imposed by Western states. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian dismissed this. Not sanctions, but the Russian attack on Ukraine, which caused sanctions and port blockades, is the cause of the crisis.

The World Trade Organization predicts that war and sanctions could halve the volume of world trade. Europe will be hit hard, but the effects will be dramatic for the Middle East and Africa, where there will be massive price increases for food and oil, among other things.

This anticipated food crisis could lead to new refugee movements, World Food Programme Director David Beasley warned. “South of Europe, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic, 500 million people live in very uncertain conditions. Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia, to name some, are in dire straits. They are experiencing a severe drought. The last thing we need is for millions more to leave South Africa or the Middle East, except for four million refugees in Ukraine. ”

Even in Ukraine, food supplies will get worse and worse. That is why the World Food Programme is preparing to provide food for millions of people in Ukraine, a country with the most fertile land in the world. How do we do this? Should we take something from hungry children in Africa to give to hungry children in Ukraine? Or the other way around? /DW