The american presidentJoe Biden said Thursday that food shortages “are going to be real” and that this is one of the issues he spoke regarding today with his interlocutors in Brussels.
“The price of the sanctions is not going to be only on Russia, it is going to be on many countries, including European countries and our country as well,” the president said at a press conference.
Biden claimed that there will be food shortages because both Russia and Ukraine have been “the bread baskets of Europe” and revealed that he has spoken with the G7 leaders regarding how to speed up the wheat trade and “end trade restrictions” on shipping. of food abroad.
He indicated that Canada and the United States, which are major producers of wheat, have discussed how they might increase their exports to alleviate the lack of food in the most impoverished nations.
Some countries have imposed export restrictions on some of the food they produce. However, the United States asked them to end these limitations in the face of the war in Ukraine.
Alleviate concerns regarding food shortages
“We are in the process of talking to our European friends regarding what it would be, what they would need, to ease those concerns around food shortages,” Biden explained.
Almost from the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, the UN and its agencies warned that the war might be a very serious blow for many countries. This is given the rise in fuel prices that it has caused and because both Russia and Ukraine are two of the largest producers of cereals and fertilizers in the world.
They provide a large supply of sunflower and wheat oil
Among other things, Russia and Ukraine account for more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower oil and 30% of wheat.
According to the UN, Ukraine alone produces more than half of the wheat used by the World Food Program (WFP), the UN agency that supports countries around the world to fight hunger.
In addition, there are 45 countries in Africa and elsewhere that import at least a third of their wheat from the Ukraine or Russia. While another 18 who buy at least half, including Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Sudan or Yemen.