DAVOS, Switzerland, May 24 (Reuters) – A growing global food crisis is plaguing protectionist movements in countries that are likely to exacerbate the problem and could lead to a wider trade war, business leaders and policymakers told the World Economic Forum.
In the wake of escalating pressure on food supply and rising prices, a government source told Reuters that India could restrict sugar exports for the first time in six years to prevent an increase in food prices. internal prices. Read more
Meanwhile, Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, will eliminate a subsidy for bulk cooking oil and replace it with a price cap on raw materials for local refineries. Read more
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“It’s a major problem, and frankly, I think the problem is even bigger in front of us than behind us,” Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told Reuters about growing food security concerns.
Protectionism is approaching Davos, which calls for urgent negotiations to prevent a full-blown trade war.
“It’s very important that world leaders sit at the table calmly and talk about how we will manage trade, food and investment,” Jay Collins, vice president of banking, capital markets and Citigroup advising, told Reuters Global Markets . Davos Forum.
“There’s been a lot of talk with the G7 here in the last 48 hours,” Collins said.
Hoarding
For residents of sub-Saharan African countries, for example, 40% of their consumption is spent on food, Gopinath said. In addition to a “huge impact on the cost of living,” rising prices have led to accumulation by governments.
“We have about 20 more countries that have put restrictions on food and fertilizer exports, and that can only make matters worse and worse,” he said Monday.
At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) (Davos meeting) held on May 24 in Davos, eastern Switzerland, business executives and policymakers said the escalation of the global food crisis was protectionist in each country and warned that the problem could be exacerbated. and lead to a wider trade war. The photo shows an employee carrying a bag of wheat (Reuters 2022 / Khaled Abdullah) at the World Food Program (WFP) facility in Sana’a, Yemen.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation,” has provoked a sudden crisis in an approaching crisis.
“We were facing an extraordinary food crisis before Ukraine, food costs, commodity prices, shipping costs were already doubling, tripling, quadrupling,” said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program. ‘Food of the United Nations.
The number of people “marching towards hunger” has risen from 80 million to 276 million in the last four or five years, Beasley told Reuters in an interview with Davos.
“Keeping ports closed while the harvest season arrives in Ukraine in July and August means a declaration of war on the world’s food supply,” he said.
Many Davos companies have contacted how they can act to address the food crisis, Beasley added.
“UNSUSTAINABLE”
“Agriculture must be part of the solution to climate change and it must address food security,” Erik Fyrwald, CEO of Syngenta Group, told a roundtable on Monday.
Fyrwald said Syngenta has demonstration farms that show how farming practices such as not plowing the land and covering crops in the winter to prevent soil erosion were better for the soil, food security and climate change.
Another potential solution to the food crisis is tackling waste, Gilbert Tomazoni, CEO of JBS SA (JBSS3.SA), the world’s largest meat processor, told a WEF panel on Tuesday.
“Humanity is facing two major emergencies at the same time, we need to face climate change and we need to produce more to feed a growing population,” Tomazoni said.
“And the way we are producing today is not sustainable. This is our big, big challenge. Food waste, we have to take on this situation,” Tomazoni added.
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Report by Jessica DiNapoli, Dan Burns and Divya Chowdhury; Edited by Alexander Smith
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