Analysis-Food export bans, from India to Argentina, risk fueling inflation (Thomson Reuters – KFGO) 

Reuters published an article stating that India’s plans to “feed the world” were shelved after only a brief 24 hours after the announcement. A barrage of alarming data changed all that. Data on India’s wheat crop, the huge jump in inflation, and the war. Some countries had already announced export curbs last year, given the tightness in global food supplies. But the dominos really started to fall following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to IFPRI, the wave of export restrictions already affects nearly one-fifth of calories traded globally – that’s nearly double the impact of the last global food crisis of 2008. Senior research fellow David Laborde Debucquet said, “These types of measures tend to provoke some panicked behavior of hoarding from the buyers’ side…that accelerates the price spike.” Breisinger called for better collaboration between Nigeria and the international community to implement the action on the ground for food and nutrition security. Another senior research fellow Kwaw Andam who works in the IFPRI-Nigeria office said, “Higher temperature, sea-level rise, growing frequency and intensity of extreme weather such as drought, floods, extreme heat are already reducing agricultural productivity and disrupting food supply chains. Action to address climate change has begun but it urgently needs to be accelerated by hastening innovation, reforming policies.” Republished in USA News and World Report, Hellenic Shipping News, KFGO, The News (Singapore), User Walls, News AZI (India), The Leaders Online, and International Business Times (Global). (See tool, Food & Fertilizer Export Restrictions Tracker).