Russia and Ukraine are the two largest breadbaskets of the world. According to statistics, nearly 50 countries import more than 30% of wheat from Russia and Ukraine. Recently, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out, the global food supply fell into a state of uneasiness, and food prices soared.
In addition to directly affecting the export volume of grain from the two countries, the situation in Russia and Ukraine has also hindered global food production.
As the saying goes, "a crop is a flower, all rely on fertilizer to be the home", and fertilizer is an indispensable part of grain production. Russia is the world's main exporter of fertilizers, with the largest export volume of nitrogen fertilizers in the world, and the export volume of potash and phosphate fertilizers also ranks second and third in the world, respectively. On March 10, Russia said it would not export fertilizer to "unfriendly" regions.
The shortage of fertilizer supply will affect global food production in 2022, and the food supply is "worse".
On March 14, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the world's food problem and hoped that countries would act as soon as possible to prepare for famine. On March 16, the World Food Programme said that 38 countries, including 44 million people, would not have enough to eat in 2022.
In response to the food problem, many countries have declared food export controls or banned food exports to ensure adequate food supplies. These include Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Indonesia, Argentina, Turkey, Bulgaria and Algeria.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the biggest hit of this "food crisis" should be low-income people in developing countries. Rising food prices have left their meagre incomes struggling to support their living expenses and they are starving.
Text | Fu Jia title | Huang Zi gallium trial | Lee Ze-plutonium