Chatham House published a podcast that featured senior research fellow Joseph Glauber. Glauber spoke on various angles related to the global food supply, demand, and price spikes. He said, “Wheat is a globally traded commodity, and when we see disruptions like drought or what we’re seeing in Ukraine, buyers are able to get wheat, but they’re paying a lot more. In North Africa, they get most of their wheat from the Black Sea area.” Other suppliers will jump in, but it will come at a cost. Prior to the crisis, we were at tight global stocks. Stocks have been drawn down, and prices were up before the war. What will we see go up, other than the obvious–wheat? Ukraine is a major producer of maize for China and Europe and Ukraine’s corn is not GMO which Europe demands. People are trying all over the world to source grain from new suppliers. It will take a long time to fix the damage.” “We’ll see high prices through, at the earliest, 2023.”
War in Ukraine: Is war eating away at the world? (Chatham House: Undercurrents)
April 21, 2022