© Provided by Associated PressFILE – Halimo Hersi, 42, right, buys wheat flour from a shopkeeper in the Hamar-Weyne market in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, May 26, 2022. Russian hostilities in Ukraine are preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe, raising the specter of shortages, hunger and political instability in developing countries. Together, Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley, more than half its sunflower oil and are big suppliers of corn. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
The idea is that grain can be transferred into the silos, and then “into cars in Europe and get it out to the ocean and get it across the world. But it’s taking time,” he said in a speech Tuesday.
Dmytrasevych said Ukraine’s grain storage capacity has been reduced by 15 million to 60 million tons after Russian troops destroyed silos or occupied sites in the south and east.
© Provided by Associated PressFILE – A farmer holds livestock manure that he will use to fertilize crops, due to the increased cost of fertilizer that he says he now can’t afford to purchase, in Kiambu, near Nairobi, in Kenya Thursday, March 31, 2022. Together, Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley, more than half its sunflower oil and are big suppliers of corn. Russia is the top global fertilizer producer. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
WHAT’S COSTING MORE?
World production of wheat, rice and other grains is expected to reach 2.78 billion tons in 2022, down 16 million tons from the previous year — the first decline in four years, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said.
Wheat prices are up 45% in the first three months of the year compared with the previous year, according to the FAO’s wheat price index. Vegetable oil has jumped 41%, while sugar, meat, milk and fish prices also have risen by double digits.
The increases are fueling faster inflation worldwide, making groceries more expensive and raising costs for restaurant owners, who have been forced to increase prices.
Some countries are reacting by trying to protect domestic supplies. India has restricted sugar and wheat exports, while Malaysia halted exports of live chickens, alarming Singapore, which gets a third of its poultry from its neighbor.
The International Food Policy Research Institute says if food shortages grow more acute as the war drags on, that could lead to more export restrictions that further push up prices.
Another threat is scarce and costly fertilizer, meaning fields could be less productive as farmers skimp, said Steve Mathews of Gro Intelligence, an agriculture data and analytics company.
There are especially big shortfalls of two of the main chemicals in fertilizer, of which Russia is a big supplier.
“If we continue to have the shortage of potassium and phosphate that we have right now, we will see falling yields,” Mathews said. “No question about it in the coming years.”
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AP reporters Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo; Cara Anna and Eloge Willy Kaneza in Nairobi, Kenya; Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Darlene Superville in Philadelphia; and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.