EPRS Strategy By / July 4, 2022

Russia’s war on Ukraine and food security [What Think Tanks are thinking]

Russia’s war on Ukraine has sent global food prices soaring. It has fuelled inflation in the European Union, the United States and many other countries, while threatening hunger in some poorer regions.

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Written by Marcin Grajewski.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has sent global food prices soaring. It has fuelled inflation in the European Union, the United States and many other countries, while threatening hunger in some poorer regions. Russia and Ukraine play a major role in food and fertiliser supply. They export about 30 per cent of the world’s wheat and 75 per cent of its sunflower oil. Some countries in Africa and the Middle East are nearly 100-per cent dependent on Russian or Ukrainian food. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food prices in May were up by nearly 30 per cent from a year earlier. Western countries are debating a plan to open up supply chains, for example by unblocking Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, and to provide foodfinancing to developing countries.

This note gathers links to the recent publications and commentaries from international think tanks on the impact of the war on global and European food markets. Analyses on the Ukraine war and its implications for the energy market can be found in a previous edition of the ‘What Think Tanks are Thinking’ series.

The war in Ukraine triggered a global food shortage
Brookings Institution, June 2022

Food security: The role and limits of international rules on export restrictions
Bruegel, June 2022

Russia is intensifying the global food crisis
Centre for Eastern Studies, June 2022

Can the West afford to let the world go hungry? Overcoming challenges to establishing a humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea
Istituto Affari Internazionali, June 2022

Authoritarian leaders are turning to food export bans amid war in Ukraine
Peterson Institute for International Economics, June 2022

Production and export of food from Ukraine during the war with Russia
Centre for Eastern Studies, May 2022

Sustainable agriculture and food systems
Chatham House, May 2022

Why Ukraine’s ports are vital for global food prices
Heritage Foundation, May 2022

India’s wheat export ban: Bad economics, good politics, modest impact
Peterson Institute for International Economics, May 2022

The Ukraine war and food security in Africa: ‘Meeting the acute needs is not solving the general problem’
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, May 2022

The Ukraine war is deepening global food insecurity: What can be done?
United States institute of Peace, May 2022

The Ukraine war and threats to food and energy security
Chatham House, April 2022

Ukraine’s bread basket is emptying fast
Chatham House, April 2022

How Russia’s war in Ukraine could amplify food insecurity in the Mideast
Council on Foreign Relations, April 2022

Food crisis: Wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, April 2022

Food price inflation continues to worsen: Here’s what should be done about it
Heritage Foundation, April 2022

Rising food prices: Global risks and vulnerabilities
Italian Institute for International Political Studies, April 2022

Russia’s war with Ukraine will force the acceleration of food production reforms in Africa
Polish Institute of International Affairs, April 2022

The Russian invasion of Ukraine endangers African food security in the long-term
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, April 2022

Obscured by the energy crisis, a food crisis unfolds
Atlantic Council, March 2022

East Africa’s growing food crisis: What to know
Brookings Institution, March 2022

The impact of the war in Ukraine on food security
Bruegel, March 2022

The economic policy consequences of the war
Bruegel, March 2022

Russia’s invasion leaves North Africa with a food crisis: What can Europe do?
European Centre for Development Policy Management, March 2022

Putin’s war: Driving Ukrainians into hunger, and the rest of the world as well
Friends of Europe, March 2022

Long-run impacts of the conflict in Ukraine on food security in Africa
Institut für Weltwirtschaft Kiel, March 2022

Guerre en Ukraine: Comment sauver la sécurité alimentaire sans sacrifier la transition agroécologique ?
Terra Nova, March 2022


Read this briefing on ‘Russia’s war on Ukraine and food security‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.


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