Panic over food supplies spiked in the early months of the war between Russia and Ukraine, writes Agri-Pulse in a short summary of the latest news. These fears about food access for populations spurred countries like Indonesia and India to curb exports of agricultural commodities. But export restrictions are now on the decline, and prices have returned to pre-war levels, according to an analysis by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Export controls on commodities like palm oil, wheat, and corn reached a high with restrictions on more than 5 percent of globally traded food, as measured on a calorie basis, but that has dropped to just 3.2 percent, according to an IFPRI analysis.
“Almost a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global market prices for key food items have returned to pre-war levels,” said IFPI senior research fellows Joseph Glauber and David Laborde. “The war continues, but the share of exports affected by export restrictions has fallen by over 50 percent from its May peak, while the measures themselves appear to be less consequential than many anticipated.”
(For more detail on IFPRI’s analysis, read the blog post, Is food price inflation really subsiding?)