Why Russia remains innocent on food, energy crises
Let’s recall that threat of a global food crisis did not emerge as recently as this year.
Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme David Beasley warned about the possibility of famines “of biblical proportions” back in 2020. At that point, 155 million people in 55 countries were facing critical threats to food security. Among the reasons he cited were conflicts, extreme weather phenomena and economic perturbations.
As of today, the number of starving people is estimated at 193 million.
Secretary-General of UNCTAD Rebeca Grynspan said there is no problem with a physical deficit of food in the world, and that it is all about food distribution systems.
By February, the prices were more than 60 per cent higher than the five-year average.
Among the reasons, leading experts point out such consequences of Covid-19 pandemic as interruptions in supply chains, growing freight and insurance charges.
The steep increase of anti-crisis financial injections in the economy also played a role: the US, EU and Japan jointly spent more than $8 trillion on that. Add to this all previously started trade wars and lasting contradictions with regard to agricultural market regulations.
As a result, food supplies turned out to stand at their lowest in recent decades years. At the same time, Western states drew overall commodity flows, which aggravated the complicated situation of import-dependent developing countries.
In 2020-22 oil prices increased by more than 22 per cent, affecting the food industry. Gas prices also went a record high, even though Russia enhanced deliveries. This led up to an unprecedented rise in prices of mineral fertilisers in December 2021: carbamide and saltpetre prices multiplied by 3.5 to 4, and prices for other fertilisers increased up to threefold. Speculations at Western futures markets of foodstuff add to the problem.
None of these key factors can be blamed on Russia. Nonetheless, our Western colleagues do not mention any of them. Of course, they also omit unilateral economic sanctions that are suffocating a range of states.
All of them are talking about one and the same thing: It is the Russian special military operation in Ukraine that allegedly threatens the world with famine.
Allegedly, we block agricultural exports from Ukraine by sea. In truth, it is Ukraine that has blocked 75 vessels from 17 states and has mined the waterways.
Russia’s armed forces daily open a humanitarian corridor for vessels leading away from Ukraine’s territorial waters. There are still risks posed by Ukrainian unanchored mines floating in the Black Sea. Russia takes all measures to ensure the safety of civil navigation. We daily forward this information to the UN. Ukraine takes no such efforts.
In the circumstances, deliveries of agricultural products and fertilisers from Russia and Belarus encounter another problem that Western states created artificially: The illegal unilateral coercive measures.
They affected the area of agriculture even before the recent events in Ukraine. But after February 24, true mayhem began. More than 10,000 sanctions were imposed on Russia alone. They disrupted transportation routes, impeded the movement of Russian vessels and banned them from entering ports, caused problems with freight and insurance, and restricted international commercial transactions.
Difficulties with banking transactions hit not only the most vulnerable private importers but also humanitarian agencies. Western sanctions-related threats to our energy sector keep destabilising the markets.
Nevertheless, Russia remains a responsible supplier of both food and energy. This year we expect record crops of wheat.
Starting from August we can offer to export 25 million tonnes of grain. But if the Western countries do not want to lift their sanctions of choice, why blame Russia for the food crisis?
Why must the poorest countries and regions suffer from those irresponsible geopolitical games?
— This is an abridged version of the statement by Nebenzia, the Permanent Representative of Russia to UN, at the UN Security Council open debate ‘Conflict and Food Security’ of May 19
