A warning has been issued to anyone doing a supermarket food shop in the next few months. Svein Tore Holsether, chief executive of Yara, told the BBC that hostilities in the Gulf, which have blocked shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, are jeopardising global food production.
He urged European Union nations to consider carefully the impact of a price war on the most vulnerable in other countries. The increased costs facing food producers are expected to start showing up on weekly food bills in the next few months, it has also been warned.
Fertiliser Shortage Impact
We are up to half a million tons of nitrogen fertiliser not being produced in the world right now because of the situation we are in, Holsether said. What does that mean for food production? I would get to up to 10 billion meals that will not be produced every week as a result of the lack of fertilisers.
The fertiliser market is very global so these parts are moving across the planet, but the main destinations would be Asia, South East Asia, Africa, Latin America where you would see the most immediate impact from this, he said.
Expert Warnings
Professor Paul Teng, a senior fellow in food security in Singapore, said: If the crisis drags on any longer, we will be seeing impact on crops such as rice in the coming months. They are faced with higher energy costs, diesel for a tractor is increasing, other inputs for the farmers are increasing, fertiliser cost is increasing, but yet the crop prices have not increased to the same extent yet, he said.
Global Implications
If there is a bidding war on food and one that Europe is robust enough to handle, what we need to keep in mind in Europe is, OK, in that situation, who are we buying the food away from? Holsether said. That is a situation where the most vulnerable people pay the highest price for this in developing nations where they cannot afford to follow that.
