UN: An additional 13 million people around the world will go hungry because of the war in Ukraine

Countries that were already living on the brink of food insecurity, exacerbated during the pandemic by the phenomenon of hunger, approximately 18%, that is for 720 to 810 million people, will be tested even more in the coming years.

The international organizations, the United Nations, based on an initial assessment point out that due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine in the global food market an additional 7.6 – 13 million people will go hungry.

The specifics they show escalation of food insecurity as a consequence of the war in Ukraine was presented by the professor of the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus Irini Cheila analyzing its political and economic ramifications at the Conference “International Effects of the War in Ukraine” organized in Thessaloniki, at the University of Macedonia in memory of Professor Ilias Kouscouveli.

“Countries with conflictssuch as Yemen, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Syria are already experiencing increasing rates of hunger,” said Ms. Heila.
Stressing that the slowdown in economic activity had already begun with the outbreak of the pandemic with the shock to demand and supply and the slowdown in trade between states, he said that post-war price increases were forecast to reach developed economies around 7% and in the countries of the European south they can reach over 10%.

This increase combined with the energy crisis, the partial disruption of trade supply routes after the Russian seizure of ports in the Ukrainian south and the inability to promote basic food products constitute an explosive environment and a headache for governments, leaderships and international organizations, Ms. Heila estimated.

Russia and Ukraine are major producers and exporters of natural gas, oil, metals and grains, with the result that rising commodity prices are putting inflationary pressures on countries most affected by disruptions to the global supply chain.

One of the areas that will be most affected, according to the professor of the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus, will be those of Sub-Saharan Africain which 85% of grain supplies are imported, while rising prices of fertilizers and petroleum products will hurt local food production, dangerously increasing nutritional insufficiency.

Ukraine in 2021 produced according to the FAO (International Food and Agriculture Organization), about 86 million tons of grain, in 2019, 35.9 million tons of corn and was the fifth largest producer of these products after China, the USA, Brazil and ArgentinaMs. Heila emphasized and repeated statements by the executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, who said that “when a country like Ukraine whose crops can meet the food needs of 400 million people is out of the market, this creates instability and will lead to famine and possibly destabilization and mass migration around the world.”

“If we take into account that in 2019 42% of the world’s export trade in sunflower oil came from Ukraine, as well as 16% in corn and 9% in grain, one understands that in terms of supply and demand the effects of the war, especially for the so-called fragile states will be dramatic” said Mrs. Heila and referred to the calls addressed to the international community by economists, officials of international organizations and non-governmental organizations to take measures to support the affected countries by limiting the rise in food and energy prices, so that deal with the economic shock these countries have already suffered due to the pandemic with many of them facing high public debt

The food crisis can make the international order precarious, so those who manage the international order, the great powers, the powerful countries, should prove that the institutions and policies they follow somehow contribute to its preservation, he pointed out. “The question is where the international order will be headed given the prolongation of the war and its multi-level effects. If a number of countries, such as Turkey, Egypt, Iran, which cover 60% of the grain needs from Russia and Ukraine, look for new sources of supply and cover their nutritional needs, this means that any balance of power in the international and regional order will be subject to the realization of goals primary to human survival,” he said, emphasizing that the lack of political will and pioneering leadership did not approach it as a security issue until recently. “This fact reflects the existing inadequacy in the international community of a sense of common interest, so that countries can work cooperatively and prevent an upcoming danger with tsunami dimensions” underlined Mrs. Heila.

The Conference is co-organized by the Council for International Relations (CfIR-Gr), the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Macedonia, the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus, the Department of International, European and Regional Studies of Pantheon University and the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese.

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