The U.S., and Europe race to improve the food supply chain following the wheat ban in India.
The United States and the European Union are looking at ways to improve the supply chain of food by removing trade restrictions on India as well as other nations that are causing global issues, the EU’s trade chief has told an international media.
G-7 foreign ministers have warned this weekend that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has increased the chance of a global hunger crisis. This is because Ukraine is unable to export its grain, fertilizers, and vegetable oil, and the conflict has also destroyed the crop fields and delayed the normal season of planting.
This has increased the dependence on other nations of the world to purchase these goods. However, some of these nations concerned about the availability of food for their citizens, the wheat ban in India, have put in place limitations on exports. This is the situation in India as an example that announced on Saturday that it would halt the sale of wheat “to manage the overall food security of the country.”
“That’s very much of concern,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s trade chief said on CNBC Sunday on the subject of these new export restrictions.
“We have agreed to work with the United States to cooperate and coordinate our efforts in this field, like… because of Russia’s aggressiveness against Ukraine and a consequent rise in food prices, and concern regarding food security, some countries are taking measures to restrict exports. We think this trend could only exacerbate the issue,” Dombrovskis said.
Export restrictions could increase the prices of commodities, and consequently the cost of food as well. For the EU it’s an issue of food affordability, as Dombrovskis said.