UN official warns of food crisis as 25 mn tonnes of grain remain stuck in Ukraine amid war

Due to the infrastructure challenges, and blockade of the Black Sea ports by Russian warships, nearly 25 million tonnes of grains stuck in Ukraine for global supply is unable to be shipped, Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization told a Geneva press briefing via video conferencing on Friday. Ukraine has been the world’s fourth largest exporter of maize (corn) as per the International Grains Council data but the recent war has obstructed exports, the UN food agency official informed on May 6. 

Since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, tonnes of grains from Ukraine has been unable to leave the ports. 

“It’s an almost grotesque situation we see at the moment in Ukraine with nearly 25 mln tonnes of grain that could be exported but that cannot leave the country simply because of lack of infrastructure, the blockade of the ports,” Josef Schmidhuber, FAO Deputy Director,  Josef Schmidhuber, said. 

Food prices worldwide hit all time high 

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization's official warned that the full silos could lead to more storage shortages during the July and August harvest season, although despite the war, the harvest conditions “do not look dire.”

“There’s not enough storage capacity in Ukraine, particularly if there’s no wheat corridor opening up for export from Ukraine,” Schmidhuber said expressing concerns that the Russian assaults have resulted in the grain storage destruction. And so, he added, Ukraine has been forced to export the globe’s grain supply via a train through the western border or the Danube river ports located near the sea. The Russian blockades that are obstructing Ukraine’s grain export have also soared the food prices worldwide. 

It has also been feared by World Bank that the war in Ukraine will gradually prompt near-term wheat supply shortages in developing and the poor nations. In its Trade Watch report, the World Bank projected Gambia, Lebanon, Moldova, Djibouti, Libya, Tunisia and Pakistan as the most impacted countries by the grain supply disruption as they import roughly 40% of wheat from Ukraine.

"These importers will have trouble quickly switching to alternative sources, possibly leading to supply shortages in the short run," the World Bank warned in its report. Both Russian and Ukraine supply quarter of world’s total grain export. The Cereal Price Index of the UN FAO indicated that wheat prices have surged by at least 60% since the war started in February. Prices of wheat, vegetable oil, corn, grains prices hit all-time high and risk worsening the global hunger and food shortage crises durin the COVID-19 pandemic global supply chains recovery.