Page 5 - AfrElec Week 19 2022

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec

reached the highest ever recorded, the Inter- distant markets, such as Russia and Ukraine.
national Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food
Systems (IPES) said in a report. Exposed countries
Almost 40% of Africa’s wheat imports come Turkey and most of the Middle East and North
from Ukraine and Russia, while rising global Africa are dependent on imports of many foods
wheat prices have sent bread prices in Lebanon from Russia and Ukraine – especially for cereals
70% higher, IPES said. and vegetable seeds/oils. Asia, Africa and Cen-
Russia and Ukraine supply about 30% of tral Europe sit somewhere in between, according
global wheat exports, but those have collapsed to Capital Economics.
as a result of the conflict. “We estimate that imports from Russia and
The report highlighted that the sudden halt to Ukraine account for 20-30% of domestic wheat
wheat and fertiliser exports from Ukraine, Rus- supplies in Turkey, Indonesia and parts of Africa
sia and Belarus, combined with droughts, floods and 40-50% in Egypt, the UAE and Tunisia.
and high temperatures heat fuelled by climate Imports of sunflower seeds/oil account for 30%
change, are damaging more harvests. of domestic supplies in Turkey, Poland, China
This is pushing up prices and causing food and Korea, 60% in MENA and more than 70%
insecurity in some of the world’s most vulnerable in Tunisia, India and Malaysia. Other vulnera-
countries, pushing up poverty levels and threat- bilities include soybeans (Turkey and Poland),
ening wider development goals such as access to corn (Tunisia) and cocoa products (the UAE),”
clean water, energy and education. said Capital Economics’ Liam Peach.
The war in Ukraine has sparked the third Egypt sources 15% of its needs as imports,
food crisis in 15 years, the report warned. but in very large volumes. It has been desper-
However, the spike in food prices builds on ately looking new suppliers in the last month,
the more worrying underlying trend of food but without luck, and the authorities say it now
insecurity. The report warned that the “under- only has three months of reserves left.
lying rigidities, weaknesses and flaws in global
food systems” are fanning the flames of global Ways out
hunger. Efforts to grow more wheat elsewhere replace
Fundamental flaws in global food systems, Russian and Ukraine supplies are being made.
such as heavy reliance on food imports and India, for example, India has boosted exports of
excessive commodity speculation, have allowed wheat to meet demand.
the Ukraine conflict to become a full-blown India exported a record 7.85mn tonnes of
global food price crisis, the report concludes. wheat in the year to March, up 275% on the
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation previous year, taking advantage of rising wheat
said that the number of undernourished people prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.
could increase by 13 million because of the cur- However, the country’s heatwave since mid-
rent war-induced crisis. March has cut crop yields, the London-based
As such, the report called for more domestic Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit warned.
wheat production using less fertiliser, less spec- “Millions of people could be severely affected
ulation on what markets and effort to reduce by the heatwave in India - another sign of the
poorer countries reliance on wheat imports from growing human cost of extreme weather. India

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