'We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger,' said U.N. Secretary-General AntonioGuterres.
"We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.The head of the United Nations warned Monday that Russia's assault on Ukraine is pushing the global food system to the brink of disaster as wheat prices skyrocket and key supply chains are thrown into chaos, threatening a hunger crisis in Europe and well beyond.
"Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world's supply of sunflower oil and about 30% of the world's wheat," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterresin remarks to the press in New York City."Ukraine alone provides more than half of the World Food Programme's wheat supply... All of this is hitting the poorest the hardest and planting the seeds for political instability and unrest around the globe.
Guterres noted in his statement that, weeks into Russia's invasion,"grain prices have already exceeded those at the start of the Arab Spring and the food riots of 2007-2008" and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's global food prices index is now"at its highest level ever." "Forty-five African and least-developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine [or] Russia—18 of those countries import at least 50%," Guterres continued."This includes countries like Burkina Faso, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system.