How the Ukraine war is driving up food and energy prices for the world (World Economic Forum) 

World Economic Forum published a podcast on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is having big, and potentially long-lasting impacts on the global supplies of food and energy. Senior research fellow David Laborde assesses the impact on food supplies and prices of massive disruption in what has traditionally been the ‘breadbasket of Europe’, and he has recommendations for policymakers. Laborde said, “Historically, we have seen this region of the world as the breadbasket of Europe, so it’s not a novelty. It’s just what happened after the Second World War, this part of Europe was disconnected from the rest and even from a lot of global markets. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, agriculture in this country also collapsed. In the early 1990s, these countries were actually net importer of grains. But after 20 years they recovered and they have become leading exporters of cereal products, in particular wheat, sunflower seed and sunflower oil. Of course, now there is a war, so basically there is no shipment leaving Ukraine. Sanctions and retaliation have disrupted the exports of Russia. Food cannot leave the Black Sea and markets panic, governments panic, so prices increase on the spot, and that’s really the short-term effect. Then we are going to have more medium-term and long-term consequences, both on the food market and on the fertilizer market.” Laborde also discussed the various climatic events that have affected crops including soybeans and wheat. “We want is to promote cooperation among countries to avoid panic, to avoid that, exporters start to put more and more export restriction, as we saw in 2007, 2008, and to make sure also that importers don’t kind of compete for the same resources and just, you know, increase prices on top of each other.” Republished by The European Sting. Also available on Apple Podcast  and Spotify.