“It Is Very Serious”: War And Weather Threaten To Send Food Prices Even Higher

US agriculture executives are warning that war and extreme weather have put global food supplies in danger as skyrocketing food prices have led to shortages and protests worldwide.

“We’ve actually got two crises,” Erik Fyrwald, CEO of pesticide and crop-seed maker Syngenta, told the Wall Street Journal. “The food-security crises and the climate crises.”

According to Fyrwald, extreme weather has been on the rise – including heat, drought and flooding which have affected farmers in America, Europe, Australia and India. On top of that, world grain and fertilizer markets have been disrupted by the war in Ukraine – which normally exports roughly one-third of global wheat supply – a figure projected to be cut in half this year according to the USDA.

Rising food prices are prompting unrest, as disruptions in the flow of crops from Ukraine compound existing stress on global supplies of grains and other goods. The head of the United Nations World Food Program has warned outright food shortages are possible in 2023 if Russia continues to block Ukraine’s crop exports.

Even among the world’s wealthiest countries, higher food prices have been taking a toll. U.S. grocery prices in May rose nearly 12% over the past 12 months, the largest annual increase since April 1979, according to the Labor Department. Prices increased 7.4% at restaurants and other food venues outside the home, also marking a more-than-four-decade increase. -WSJ

“It is very serious,” said Fyrwald, who added that food prices “will keep going up until and unless we can get product out through the Black Sea in the south of Ukraine.”

That said, wheat prices have come down 27% since Russia’s invasion drove them to record levels in March.- READ MORE