Stronger Dollar and the Ukrainian war caused the food imports costs to increase to an all-time high
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday, November 11, said that the global bill for food imports is expected to surge by over 10% from 2021. According to the report published by the FAO, this would set the price of food imports across the world at an all-time high.
This increase in prices, the report states, is primarily because of currency depreciation against the US dollar, the principal currency of trade on international markets. On the other side the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine have further impacted the prices as they together account for 30% of the global wheat trade. Aside from this, the report adds, these two countries also account for 78% of sunflower oil global exports.
The consequences of these factors have had a major impact in economically weaker countries, who have been affected the most due to the price hike. For example, despite a drop in volume of imports this year, Sub-Saharan Africa, which is already suffering from one of the worst droughts, is anticipated to spend $4.8 billion more on food imports.
“The aggregate food import bill for the group of low-income countries is expected to remain almost unchanged even though it is predicted to shrink by 10 per cent in volume terms, pointing to a growing accessibility issue for these countries,” the FAO report said. “These are alarming signs from a food security perspective,” the report added.
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