UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on June 24 urged that food and fertilizer products from Russia and Ukraine be allowed back into world supply, because there is a grave global food crisis and “we cannot accept mass hunger and starvation in the 21st century.” World food and fertilizer supplies have been plummeting as prices have skyrocketed over recent years, principally as a result of the economic breakdown crisis of the trans-Atlantic sector, aggravated by the U.S. and EU sanctions that have been leveled against Russia.
In a video message for a Berlin ministerial conference on global food security, Guterres warned that there could well be multiple famines in 2022, and that the situation in 2023 could be even worse. “This year’s food access issues could become next year’s global food shortage. No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe,” he stated. Guterres argued that the global food crisis can’t be solved without reintegrating Russia and Ukraine’s food and fertilizer production into world markets. He noted that fertilizer prices have risen by more than half in the past year, and energy prices by more than two-thirds. All harvests will be hit, including rice and corn, affecting billions of people across Asia, Africa and the Americas, he said.
Guterres also said the food crisis cannot be solved unless the debt and financial crisis in the developing sector is also dealt with. Developing countries that face debt default must have access to effective debt relief, he said.
