‘Flying with one engine’: Why global food supplies are at risk despite falling crop prices (Financial Times) 

Financial Times reports on global fertilizer and crop prices which it writes have fallen sharply since their peaks after last year’s Russian attack on Ukraine. Yet agriculture specialists and analysts have warned that the world’s food supplies are still under threat.

Food prices were already elevated before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine early last year, due to droughts and coronavirus pandemic-related hoarding by governments and businesses. Projected stocks for the end of the crop year in June were at the lowest level since 2008 when international food prices soared after droughts and an increase in global energy prices.

“Because of the low global stock situation, prices will remain volatile and could head sharply higher if a drought or significant weather event emerges this spring,” said Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. “Food inflation as measured by the food consumer price index remains in double digits in most areas of the world. I expect food CPI (Consumer Price Index) to decline as overall inflation abates, but it will come down slowly,” said Glauber.

Republished on Beamstart, Newstral, Les Actualites (France), Gazetasi (Albania).