Ukraine Bans Wheat & Grain Exports Vital To Global Food Supply, Citing Citizens Under Siege

(by Zero Hedge) – Ukraine, known as the “breadbasket of Europe” given it’s long been among the world’s top ten wheat exporters and supplied over $6 billion in agricultural products to the European Union in 2020, has issued an emergency order Wednesday banning the export of grains and other products.

The ban includes the export of wheat, oats, millet, buckwheat, sugar, live cattle, meat, and other products considered vital to the global economy. But amid wartime, and with Ukraine’s government saying many of its citizens are now starving under Russian siege, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian and food policy Roman Leshchenko said the drastic action was taken to avert a “humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” stabilize the market and “meet the needs of the population in critical food products,” according to the AP.

World shares of Wheat exports pic.twitter.com/tk1KiCoNiR

— Nicholas Gruen (@NGruen1) March 9, 2022

With food prices already soaring, it’s expected the move could hit already struggling populations from Lebanon to Syria to Africa the hardest.

“Russia and Ukraine together supply nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports, which have soared in price since the invasion,” the AP underscores. “The products they send are made into bread, noodles and animal feed around the world…”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has listed Russia as the globe’s top wheat exporter in 2020, while Ukraine was the fifth largest. China and India rival Russia’s production, but both countries consume most of what they produce domestically. Read Full Article >