Russia’s war on Ukraine and food security [What Think Tanks are thinking]

Russia’s war on Ukraine has sent global food prices soaring. It has fuelled inflation in the European Union, the United States and many other countries, while threatening hunger in some poorer regions. Russia and Ukraine play a major role in food and fertiliser supply. They export about 30 per cent of the world’s wheat and 75 per cent of its sunflower oil. Some countries in Africa and the Middle East are nearly 100-per cent dependent on Russian or Ukrainian food. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food prices in May were up by nearly 30 per cent from a year earlier. Western countries are debating a plan to open up supply chains, for example by unblocking Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, and to provide food financing to developing countries. This note gathers links to the recent publications and commentaries from international think tanks on the impact of the war on global and European food markets. Analyses on the Ukraine war and its implications for the energy market can be found in a previous edition of the ‘What Think Tanks are Thinking’ series.