How the war in Ukraine will impact global food prices and food security around the world (UN Dispatch) 

UN Dispatch published a podcast that featured senior research fellow Joseph Glauber to discuss various impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine including why stockpiles of corn, soybean, and wheat are so low. Glauber said, “That area of the world has been a traditional breadbasket dating back centuries, but particularly in the last 30 years since the breakup of the former Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine have emerged as dominant suppliers to the world wheat market. They are important suppliers to the maize market. They’re important suppliers for other feed grains, such as barley and in the oilseed complex, sunflower seed. Both Russia and Ukraine are big exporters of sunflower seed and sunflower seed oil. A country like Ukraine probably accounts for about 50 percent of what’s exported in the world so very, very important. And the crisis is coming at a time when food prices generally were higher even prior to this war.” He also stated, “COVID has been an issue obviously and supply chain issues have been a problem but the real driver’s area number of factors. If you look at the FAO food price index that came out last week, the food price index was already at a record level. Now, these are commodity prices. These aren’t retail food prices, for example, but still underlying commodity prices at record levels, so it’s important. And if I had talked about wheat, Ukraine is an important exporter of barley, they’re a very important exporter of corn, a lot of which goes to the EU and China. So, you know, they are supplying supplies for things like maize and sunflower seed oil in a lot of different areas that go beyond just North Africa and the Middle East.”