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Food supplies are being rocked by Russia's invasion of the 'breadbasket of Europe'

The world has just 10 weeks' worth of wheat stockpiled after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine disrupted supplies from the "breadbasket of Europe".

The UN has been warned that global wheat inventories have fallen to their lowest level since 2008 as food supplies are rocked by a “one-in-a-generation occurrence”.

Official government estimates put world wheat inventories at 33pc of annual consumption, but stocks may have slumped to as low as 20pc, according to agricultural data firm Gro Intelligence. It estimates that there are only 10 weeks of global wheat supply left in stockpiles.

Russia and Ukraine account for around a quarter of the world’s wheat exports and the West fears Mr Putin is trying to weaponise food supplies. Russia is on track for a strong wheat harvest this year, cementing Mr Putin’s control over the staple grain as bad weather spoils production in Europe and the US.

Gro Intelligence chief executive Sara Menker warned global food supplies are being hit by a number of “extraordinary” challenges, including fertiliser shortages, climate disruptions and record low inventories of cooking oils and grains.

She told the UN’s Security Council: “Without substantial immediate and aggressive coordinated global actions, we stand the risk of an extraordinary amount of both human suffering and economic damage.

“This isn’t cyclical, this is seismic. It’s a once-in-a-generation occurrence that can dramatically reshape the geopolitical era.”

The war has disrupted agricultural production in the region and sent global food prices soaring to a record high, stoking fears of unrest in developing countries. The crisis in wheat has been worsened by India, the world’s second largest producer, banning exports of the cereal and higher costs for farmers from fertiliser, feed and fuel.

Western officials also fear the Russian president is deliberately trying to damage global food supplies by destroying equipment and stealing grain in Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned of “apocalyptic” food price rises as Ukraine struggles to export products.

“Ukraine does have food in store but it can’t get it out at the moment,” he told MPs on the Treasury Committee.

“That is a major worry. It is not just a major worry for this country, it is a major worry for the developing world.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that Mr Putin is “using food as a weapon”.

“The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has quite literally been held hostage.”

He added: “Some 20m tons of grain sit unused in Ukrainian silos as global food supply dwindle (and) prices skyrocket.”

https://i.ibb.co/Smhw47S/wheat.jpg

Meanwhile, the Kremlin is tightening its grip on wheat supplies after a stronger harvest. Carlos Mera, head of agri commodities research at Rabobank, said mild conditions in Russia – which accounts for about a fifth of global wheat exports – had put it on track to produce 84.9m metric tonnes of the staple grain this year.

Conditions for Western growers have been poor due to dry conditions.

America’s southern plains region, as the bottom of the "Wheat Belt" that runs through the middle of the country, has been experiencing sustained drought conditions.

In a report earlier this month, the US Department of Agriculture forecast a major decline in wheat stocks, saying they will drop 6pc to a nine-year low of 16.8 million tonnes by the end of 2022/23.



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/20/world-has-just-ten-weeks-worth-wheat-left-ukraine-war/

I have not consumed wheat for some months now, although it is sold in my country. If I can do without wheat and many people that I know can do without wheat when there are alternatives, then the countries that lacks wheat import can do without wheat.

What I just see is that wheat will still be available but its supply will reduce which would make its price to increase. What I am mostly concerned about is for this not to result in other food price increase but which is very likely.

Amazing how a war in not biggest and leading country lead to an economical crisis. Amazing how war tactics did not improve in centuries. As in the past armies used exhaustion tactics to conquer castles and countries, as same happens now.

We have increased food prices. Later we will have what - a wheat war? In 21st century? Slowly turning into barbarians... What is going to be after supplies of wheat comes to an end? Which next recourse will be on the brink of extinction?

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The White House is working to put advanced anti-ship missiles in the hands of Ukrainian fighters to help defeat Russia's naval blockade, officials said, amid concerns more powerful weapons that could sink Russian warships would intensify the conflict. Bryan Clark, a naval expert at the Hudson Institute, said 12 to 24 anti-ship missiles like the Harpoon with ranges over 100 km would be enough to threaten Russian ships and could convince Moscow to lift the blockade. "If Putin persists, Ukraine could take out the largest Russian ships, since they have nowhere to hide in the Black Sea," Clark said.

Ukraine has been asking for a long time, and it seems that the delivery of anti-ship missiles has finally been approved, which will mean a turning point in the war at sea. In the event that Ukraine receives such weapons, all Russian ships would be fully exposed and would have to withdraw or be destroyed. The only question is how long Russia will try to achieve some of its goals in this way, but it will certainly not last long - the unblocking of Black Sea ports will happen with the military defeat of the Black Sea Fleet or Russia's withdrawal before that.

If food growers adopted a crypto token which was backed by food commodities and guaranteed a static exchange rate for a set number of tomatos, potatos, per token.

That could be a good format for future food emergencies.

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This may explain why russia launched missiles at odesa. To disrupt wheat exportation.
~~~

This may explain why russia launched missiles at odesa. To disrupt wheat exportation.

I'm not certain what proportion of european diets are derived from wheat sources. This seems as if it might be bad news.

We have had claims of "apocalyptic" food prices for awhile now. While naysayers claim it will not affect 1st world countries.

If food growers adopted a crypto token which was backed by food commodities and guaranteed a static exchange rate for a set number of tomatos, potatos, per token.

That could be a good format for future food emergencies.

This may explain why russia launched missiles at odesa. To disrupt wheat exportation.

for sure, these countries which are relying on ukraine's wheat will always find alternative sources like from china, india, US and other top wheat exporters. or look for wheat alternatives. i don't think they will wait for ukraine's supply just to go on with their lives. they know this situation is about to happen as the war is not yet ending. so high likely that they are already looking for other exporters. it is not the end of the world yet. so as long as we live, there's hope to find these alternative sources. and the reason why 1st world countries won't be affected by this situation is because there are other sources for wheat, maybe, if ukraine is the sole supplier but it is not.

It's about time the world did something about that Russian bear that is trying to bully it. Russia even targeted a seed bank in Ukraine but managed to only destroy part of it. They target food stores and warehouses, Russians are stealing farming equipment and destroying grain silos.
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/russian-forces-targeting-grain-storage-to-cause-famine-ukraine-alleges-2022-5

Russia should be kicked out of the UN and other worldwide organizations and summits that it used to participate in. It should become a pariah of the world for what it's doing.

We are going to survive without Ukrainian wheat. I'm sure prices will go up but we'll manage, but this will not be forgotten.

A crypto token backed by potatoes, tomatoes or even wheat cannot make those foods more abundant and less scarce.

If the cost of growing 1 potato using organic compost and fertilizer, which are decoupled from rising chemical fertilizer prices is $0.20.

A token might guarantee exchange for 5 potatos and sell at a cost of $2.00. Which would be competitive with market prices.

Part of the excess revenue collected would be invested in expanding the production of potatos as well as expanding the organic compost and fertilizer industry. All of which would have an opposite effect in contrast to inflation. Using a model of financial transaction outside of fiat currency would isolate it from inflationary trends.

Increasing production is the means of reducing rising costs and tokens are well suited to providing revenue similar to subsidies to achieve this.

It looks like the crisis will end soon. The master of Russia, China, openly ordered the Kremlin to provide green corridors for the export of wheat from Ukraine to buyers. Looks like they understand that in such situations, it’s not far from food riots in the Middle Kingdom, and China definitely doesn’t need this!

"Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during a video conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, expressed his opinion on the situation in Ukraine and the possible impact of hostilities on the food crisis.
Wang Yi called for the immediate opening of humanitarian corridors through which Ukrainian grain could be exported."

The world terrorist will not be able to refuse China, as this will lead to a sharp deterioration in relations between Russia and China, which will mean for Russia the inability to sell surplus gas and oil, which the EU refuses, at a positive price :)

I think if wheat becomes too expensive there are a lot of other types of grains that can be used to replace it that can be produced elsewhere or are already produced in abundance such as oat, barley and rice (these can be milled).

Amazing how that one country alone is being relied on for wheat by several countries and that it not being able to export could cause unrest in these. Also starkly reminds us of how interconnected our countries has become that many are no longer able to feed themselves efficiently.

If does come to a no-more-wheat scenario, there's really no choice but to eat something else. When our country started having rice shortages a few decades ago, people ended up having to eat more sweet potato and cassava. So maybe less pita and more pilaf for the Middle Easterners, for example. Tortilla ain't that bad either.

That's true -the war has affected the whole world. Mainly through fuel and secondly through wheat. Although Pakistan is an agricultural country. The wheat prices has already increased and people are in trouble because of fuel and wheat both.
AH _ tough time!

Amazing how that one country alone is being relied on for wheat by several countries and that it not being able to export could cause unrest in these. Also starkly reminds us of how interconnected our countries has become that many are no longer able to feed themselves efficiently.

If does come to a no-more-wheat scenario, there's really no choice but to eat something else. When our country started having rice shortages a few decades ago, people ended up having to eat more sweet potato and cassava. So maybe less pita and more pilaf for the Middle Easterners, for example. Tortilla ain't that bad either.

Where I am from is a big agriculture nation as well and even with that the prices has soared. The main reason why a nation may have enough wheat or food for their citizens and yet still increase the price is the fact that the other nations that do not have that much food, can't self-sustain, pay a premium price for them, and our nations who have enough, end up selling it to them for more money.

If we kept all of our produce to ourselves, we could feed each other without paying anything, I mean individually you would, but the money would stay in the nation. Instead, farmers and mainly agri-companies end up getting them and selling to other nations and hence the prices soar for us too.

Not sure if this is worrying thing because world is big, so many counties are out there who farm wheat and can get opportunity to export from their lands. If time comes then definitely those countries who are not in export business will have this opportunity and they should start doing business like this.

Moreover, if the shortage is so prominent then they will start searching for alternatives right from this date. That management is always there back of the mind of government and management team. Hope so these things do not escalate to the war situation.

Those local farmers can’t produce that much and can’t supply the whole needs of their own country, i’m talking about small countries here so technically their next best option is to import, and if there’s a shortage in a world market, you can expect for the price to rise along with the raw materials price increases, this could hurt many people. I hope the world can have other option, we are slowly getting into this crisis.

Those local farmers can’t produce that much and can’t supply the whole needs of their own country, i’m talking about small countries here so technically their next best option is to import, and if there’s a shortage in a world market, you can expect for the price to rise along with the raw materials price increases, this could hurt many people. I hope the world can have other option, we are slowly getting into this crisis.

I'm not certain what proportion of european diets are derived from wheat sources. This seems as if it might be bad news.
We have had claims of "apocalyptic" food prices for awhile now. While naysayers claim it will not affect 1st world countries.

Conditions for Western growers have been poor due to dry conditions.

PARIS, May 27 (Reuters) - Grain trade association Coceral raised on Friday its forecast of this year’s soft wheat production in the European Union and Britain, to 143.0 million tonnes from 141.3 million estimated in March, notably due to beneficial rainfall in Spain.
The raised forecast compared with 2021 production of 143.9 million tonnes, Coceral said.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin is tightening its grip on wheat supplies after a stronger harvest. Carlos Mera, head of agri commodities research at Rabobank, said mild conditions in Russia – which accounts for about a fifth of global wheat exports – had put it on track to produce 84.9m metric tonnes of the staple grain this year.

Also I think that a lot of people are dramatizing this wheat situation. People will find a way to replace it with something else.

Exactly. I don't get why people blow things out of proportions unnecessarily sometimes despite being aware of all the facts.

Wheat can easily be replaced by rice etc  temporarily which is why it's not really a big deal. If people could survive something like COVID, they can definitely survive wheat shortage for a certain amount of time.

After seeing how European economy got hit after sanctions and war, I dont that they will ban wheat export, because they are in need of money and Europe does not consume 100% of produced wheat. Also I think that a lot of people are dramatizing this wheat situation. People will find a way to replace it with something else.

It's unfortunate but the people in countries relying on Ukraine for wheat would have to find their carb from somewhere else. There are many different replacement like rice, corn, cassava, potato, sweet potato and even plantain.

I think the problem here would be cultural and more, they will definitely crave their "daily bread". I'm from a rice country and even when I feel full eating a meal of wheat pasta or bean noodles, I feel that I still need to eat something. This is what they are going experience in the coming months if things don't improve.

Yes - that is correct.
Countries depending on Ukraine for wheat should another source - Also the countries which were depending on Russia for oil and gas supply should find an alternative as well. But do you think it is possible particularly at this time? I think not

I believe some of these countries have other sources of wheat.
I don't think a certain country will only depend on one supplier of their staple food.
So I am not really worried about this issue because there will be other suppliers around the globe.
Who knows, they will find cheaper alternatives because of this shortage?
There will always be contingencies that will be put in place here.
And besides, Ukraine is not really the very top producer of wheat, China is.

WTF?

Replacing it with something else? Russia and Ukraine are leading producers of wheat, barley, rye and oats. Who is going to replace all this production. And let's not forget the fact that the production of rice is negatively impacted by sky high prices for NPK and DAP-Potash fertilizer. Russia and Belarus produce around one-third of this supply and they are under sanctions from the west. Other producers doesn't have spare capacity to ramp up production. Maybe you are suggesting to replace wheat with cassava from Africa or Brazil or potato from Ireland?

Actually a lot of countries are bring relied on for various goods and Ukraine is one of the major exporter for wheat. And when one major exporter have been disrupted, other countries tend to be disrupted as well. However, this disruption will not last forever as government will search for alternative to import from.
Just like what happened with you when shortage happened on rice, but later on rice has been available but it came from other country instead and a price fluctuations due to changes on importer of rice.

We have so many scientists. We have learned how to make an ice cream that would taste like pickles, we have special meat for vegetarians. GMO products, square watermelons and other weird food. We have thousands labs that works on developing new taste or modifying it. Pharmacology has made a huge step from medieval times. And after all that we can not create a miracle potion, that will turn potato into wheat, or create a product with compounds and product properties be identical to wheat?

By the way - Ukraine is ready to fulfill its contractual obligations for the shipment of wheat. There are only 2 small nuances:
1. Theft of wheat stocks in the southern regions of Ukraine, temporarily occupied by Russian terrorist troops.
2. The economic terrorism of Russia, in the form of blocking the seaports of Ukraine, to disrupt navigation and, accordingly, the ability to send the same wheat to buyers. Moreover, for the unblocking of ports, Russia, like a real terrorist, demands a "ransom" - the lifting of sanctions.

But nothing, Ukraine will make every effort to help and prevent hunger, and most likely will make delivery by rail.

Yes - that is correct.
Countries depending on Ukraine for wheat should another source - Also the countries which were depending on Russia for oil and gas supply should find an alternative as well. But do you think it is possible particularly at this time? I think not

I don't think that the massive wheat stocks can be moved by rail. First of all, Ukraine wheat mainly goes to the middle east and Asia, and for that they require the wheat to be transported to ports in the Black Sea. And secondly, the railway infrastructure in Ukraine is in ruins, as far as I heard. A number of bridges were destroyed as a result of bombing and few of the railway lines are working. And then it needs to be seen how economical it is to transport the wheat to countries such as Poland and then to re-export that stock. The logistics involved would mean that such a step doesn't make any sense economically.

Food I think would easier to switch to a different supplier or buy a totally different one (like the alternatives I've mentioned). With oil and gas though it'll take longer to build new pipelines.

This is one reason Russia invaded - the pipelines are already built and Ukraine can use those to export their own gas that has been discovered there - in areas conveniently occupied by Russia now. That would have provided an alternative to Europe.

Food I think would easier to switch to a different supplier or buy a totally different one (like the alternatives I've mentioned). With oil and gas though it'll take longer to build new pipelines.

This is one reason Russia invaded - the pipelines are already built and Ukraine can use those to export their own gas that has been discovered there - in areas conveniently occupied by Russia now. That would have provided an alternative to Europe.

I agree that now it will be difficult to establish a stable and full-scale supply of grain by land (railway) transport. Yes, the largest importers of Ukrainian grain are the countries of Asia, Africa and partly the countries of Europe. That is why Russia, as a typical terrorist, introduced from the first days of a new wave of aggression against Ukraine, a total blockage of shipping. Therefore, all the countries affected by the shortage of grain can "thank" the international terrorist represented by Russia. But Ukraine still, even in such a difficult situation, will try to fulfill its obligations. Now everyone is starting to "pay" for the fact that they did not stop the terrorists and new fascists in a timely manner. The world repeated the mistakes of the last century, trying to appease the evil, and allowing him "little pranks". The world has learned nothing, and now it pays for mistakes again

Maybe this only applicable on certain area where they study since they could possibly make this things happen there, but if we talk about globally maybe this studies will not really happen nor even implemented immediately knowing that not all the country are so advance to modern technology. Maybe the right solution about this is every country should boost their agricultural sector so that we cannot experience this crisis since everyone can sustain their own country with their agricultural product and anything in agricultural side.

Exactly. I don't get why people blow things out of proportions unnecessarily sometimes despite being aware of all the facts.

Wheat can easily be replaced by rice etc  temporarily which is why it's not really a big deal. If people could survive something like COVID, they can definitely survive wheat shortage for a certain amount of time.

The "unnecessary" part is subjective, you may not believe that to be a problem but there will be a ton of people who will be caring about it, and they will make it a big deal, tons of nations rely on wheat to go on, and there are tons of nations who eat bread which is made out of wheat for most cases. Of course, there could be alternatives, but why should there be?

The sad thing is, we have enough lands to produce any food we want, we have enough cattle or anything you want to raise them and breed them and be enough for everyone, and yet we don't, why? That question is very important, why don't we have it when we can? The answer will give you the result of why we are in trouble financially in this world.

Its Ukraine that blocked their Oddesa ports, its a self inflicted sanction actually as they tried to drop their sea mines and it all scattered on their ports so everyone are now afraid to sail there. Mind you that Russia didn't got their Oddesa ports yet and its where they ship their grains too.
There's still two months for all of us to prepare. I guess the hunger will make decisions cloudier. But there's also Asia that has more rice which I think will be the best option, we can all be adventurous with out meals.

Yeah... Wow!? Ukraine... blocked in the Ukrainian city... Ukrainian ports with RUSSIAN mines, so that Ukraine could not sell grain... and get the much needed funds?
No offense - are you feeling well now? Am I kidding? Maybe you have an intoxication of mentality by the Russian media? It happens ! :)

Speaking of mines - if you read the reports, several mines made it to the Bosphorus, where they were discovered and identified. I'll tell you a secret - there are a lot of weapons in Russia, which only they have. These weapons also include these "wandering mines", which Russia, at the beginning of its terrorist aggression against Ukraine, threw into the Black Sea in Ukrainian waters, about 450 pieces. They have already been discovered off the coast of Turkey, Romania, and, logically, on the coast of Ukraine.

Moreover, the navy of Russian terrorists has closed the passage of civilian and any other ships in the Black Sea, including the waters of Ukraine. This is called economic terrorism.

Yep, Ukraine mined the way out of Odessa, fearing a Russian landing. This was announced (https://www.facebook.com/navy.mil.gov.ua/posts/327784916055764) in early March by the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on his Facebook page. Later, of course, Ukraine tried to blame everything on Russia, but it didn’t work out.

Luckily for us.... The United States   exports 26,131,626 tonnes of wheat a year and Canada does 26,110,509 tones, with France doing about 19,792,597 tonnes..... should I continue with all the other countries that export Wheat?

This is a "Storm in a Cup" that are being fabricated to inflate the price of "Wheat" ....so that prices can go up. Like they are doing with the price of Fuel.  ::)

The problem is that the production in US/Canada/France hasn't increased in 2022 when compared to 2021. And the exports from these countries are regularly sent to certain destinations. For example, the largest consumers of US wheat are Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the Philippines. Similarly, French grain was mostly exported to other EU nations such as the Netherlands. On the other hand, Ukrainian wheat was mostly sent to the middle east. US and Canada doesn't have spare capacity to export grain to the middle east, while keeping the supplies to East and South-east Asia at the same level.

I beg your pardon - as always, you pulled out a piece of text, and now you also lied, saying that you had mined the Black Sea area! And all in order to try once again to justify the world terrorist - Russia! And it's easy to prove, very simple!
1. Ukraine mined by setting "minefields", but ... COAST and COASTAL zone (up to 1 km, from the coastline), so that the landing force could not set foot on the ground, and not disrupt maritime traffic throughout the region.
2. Ukraine did not mine the coastal zone with free-floating mines.

Items 1 and 2 are verbatim in the FB post you linked to. I quote verbatim the entire description of the warning so that everyone can see your next "cute", but primitive lie :)

So, the original phrases sound like this:
The coastal defense system includes the mining of certain territories (not the water area), where the enemy can make an amphibious landing.
Therefore, we ask you NOT to MOVE along the territory of the COAST (this is the land part) of the Odessa region. It's not safe for your life.
We urge fishermen and boats not to move NEAR the SHORE of the Odessa region, so as not to put themselves at risk, and not to fall under possible fire and minefields.

And most importantly, Ukraine used anchor mines to mine the COAST, because. near the coast, there is often noticeable excitement and currents, and free-floating mines will leave the mining zone in a few days and will not fulfill their main goal - protecting a given territory.

Yes, well, and the best proof is that by marking the mines that were found off the coast of Turkey and Romania, it easily became clear that these were mines that were located in the warehouses of the Ukrainian Navy in Crimea, and were captured by Russian terrorists back in 2014, during the occupation of Crimea .

I told you - do not try to lie primitively, and even referring to the source that you misrepresented, having previously pulled out a small part of the information. Not a very nice act for an adult!

Without a doubt this is a problem, if the supply goes down and the demand for wheat is still the same then the price has to go up, however while this is acceptable in most fields when it comes to food this creates a huge problem as we cannot live without food, this means that while there are many people that will afford the more expensive price, the poorest will not be able to do it, so I would not be surprised if we saw political instability during the next months and it is even possible some regimes could fall because of this.

Some of the regimes have already fallen as a result of rising crude and wheat prices. I can give examples of Pakistan and Sri Lanka. And even strong countries such as Turkey are under strain due to rising trade deficit. My own country (India) have somehow survived this crisis, but there is no guarantee that the situation will continue in case the prices remain at elevated levels for a long time. Government has reduced taxes on petrol and diesel to make them more affordable, and the oil PSUs are incurring a loss of around Rs.20 per liter.

~~~
In general, returning to the topic, I would not throw a tantrum over 20 million tons of wheat stuck in Ukraine. The figure seems huge, but on a global scale it is about three percent of wheat production, and fits within the margin of error from year to year, depending on yield and natural factors.

Dude, Ukraine is losing. There were videos of their armies surrendering, this is desparate times and anything that will hurt Russia they will do it particularly their media.

The Russian said they have their  grains, they are willing to distribute them but Ukrainjan ships are sanctioned themselves. I'm not gonna be surprise if Russians will distribute grains house to house in the cities.

Believe it or not. The Russians are not the bad guys in this war. Stop watching Hollywood and spread love. xhugsx 😁

Information as of May 16, but no fundamental changes have occurred over the past 2 weeks

I beg your pardon - as always, you pulled out a piece of text, and now you also lied, saying that you had mined the Black Sea area! And all in order to try once again to justify the world terrorist - Russia! And it's easy to prove, very simple!
1. Ukraine mined by setting "minefields", but ... COAST and COASTAL zone (up to 1 km, from the coastline), so that the landing force could not set foot on the ground, and not disrupt maritime traffic throughout the region.
2. Ukraine did not mine the coastal zone with free-floating mines.

There are over 400 mines in the black sea area. So Russia plant them to prevent their own landing? That didn't sound totally idiotic? If Ukraine only set minefields in the coastal zone then who place those mines? When FSB is accusing Ukraine to put those mines in the black sea ( which is logical by determining the situation) but Ukraine denied it.

I do not trust what the Russian or Ukrainian side said. If I justify the situation and possibilities then putting mines in the black sea from Ukrainian is more logical to me.

Dude, Ukraine is losing. There were videos of their armies surrendering, this is desparate times and anything that will hurt Russia they will do it particularly their media.

The Russian said they have their  grains, they are willing to distribute them but Ukrainjan ships are sanctioned themselves. I'm not gonna be surprise if Russians will distribute grains house to house in the cities.

Believe it or not. The Russians are not the bad guys in this war. Stop watching Hollywood and spread love. xhugsx 😁

I must say that this war led me to a number of disappointments. Among them is the disappointment in the lack of care about the ideas appropriated by the Western world as their central values: freedom, human rights, democracy. Leading genocide scholars (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/27/europe/russia-ukraine-genocide-warning-intl/index.html) concluded that Russia's war against Ukraine is genocidal in its nature, and that there's an imminent risk of genocide. All the signatories of the Genocide Convention are legally obliged to prevent genocide. But they aren't doing it, and are letting atrocities after atrocities to build up, many hesitating to strongly help Ukraine in the war and weighing human lives against profits. Then there's this huge risk of decades of progress in eradicating hunger being eliminated right now by Russia's war, and again, it's not a good enough argument to do everything they can to stop Russia. There are countries that are really doing so much, and there are those that are barely doing anything. They don't care about dying civilians, raped children, famine or anything else, really, as much as they care about profits and the growth of their economies. It is very unfortunate that it turns out there are only a handful of countries who truly believe and are ready to sacrifice something for democracy, for saving innocent lives. And I'm sorry that because of the hesitance of certain countries that could help cripple Russia's power but decided against it, more innocent lives will be lost, including those who'll die from hunger.

Information as of May 16, but no fundamental changes have occurred over the past 2 weeks

https://i.postimg.cc/mgqGsmCN/00000000map.jpg (https://postimg.cc/TKrsjqkp)

Its hard to switch if many country is not executing to plant those product and they have other things exist on their country. But if more country will realize that they are lacking an important product and want to became self sustaining country then maybe they should look at this aspects and make their country great by investing on those resources which can help their country to boost up.

Those what happen to Russia is wake up call to all government on any parts of the world to find a solution towards ongoing crisis brought up by certain products hold on that country.

Well they can start planting now. I think the main possible issue with switching is if the current producers are producing enough for their current market. Like, the Americas produce corn for their consumption but we don't know if they'll have enough excess to sell if the people feeding on wheat switches to corn suddenly.

Wheat is planted in winter and it gets ready in summer. Wheat is not a winter crop.
How ever I dont think this would happen. There will be shortage - this is just a panic created. I am sure that this food crisis will not happen. Ameen

Indeed it wont happen. World can wait for "wheat supplies to recover" and parallel limit himself of some goods or food. What is food crisis - time when there is nothing to eat. So far I dont see that we dont have real problem with food supplies all around the world. Like the world faced travelling problem due to covid and was patiently waiting for it to over, the same will be with wheat supplies. Wait 1-2 years and everything will be back to normal. The world wont starve to death without having few years same wheat amount as usually.

Amazing how a war in not biggest and leading country lead to an economical crisis. Amazing how war tactics did not improve in centuries. As in the past armies used exhaustion tactics to conquer castles and countries, as same happens now.

We have increased food prices. Later we will have what - a wheat war? In 21st century? Slowly turning into barbarians... What is going to be after supplies of wheat comes to an end? Which next recourse will be on the brink of extinction?

Don't underestimate the wheat shortage because it will affect you in one way or another. It's already affecting even the smallest of business like the one street vendor I encountered today. He couldn't buy bread from the market in the last two days and he had no other option than to buy at a retail store for a higher price. Needles to say, he had to charge more for the food I ordered and I just have to suck it up. That's just my own experience and I'm sure similar cases are happening in other parts of the world.

It's not just wheat. Here in India, the prices of most of the food commodities have gone up by 25% to 100%. Sunflower oil now costs 40% to 50% extra, because most of it is imported from Russia and Ukraine. Wheat prices have remained low, because of the export ban imposed by the central government. But in case of wheat also, it needs to be seen for how long the prices will remain at this level. There is a lot of pressure from the farmer groups to remove the export ban, so that they could sell their wheat at higher prices.

Agreed - there is so much propaganda involved to keep the hype.
I am very much sure that this would not happen anytime sooner - Hopefully the food crisis won't happen. But who keeps creating this type of news? any authentic source?

Here it Europe the price of sunflower has gone up also. If not mistaken, it has already increased two times. It now cost same as olive oil. I am not an expert in cooking, but isnt olive oil more healthy? I see people prefer to use olive oil for cooking, instead of sunflower. On the other hand, I remember times when I had renovations of kitchen and I had no cooking stove at all. I've been using multicooker device for months, managed to make soups, porridge, stewed meat and etc. Used oil only for salads. I feel that food prices has gone up, but once again, there is to much drama around wheat. People will adopt their eating habits and wait for war to end.

It is a chain reaction. In the long term, the price of olive oil can't remain at the same level as that of sunflower oil. As people start replacing sunflower oil with olive oil, the price for the latter would go up. Sunflower oil prices have already gone up by around 50%, and we can expect the olive oil prices to rise by a similar level. The equilibrium in the market is disrupted. And it will have an impact on all the commodifies, and not just on the commodities that are mostly sourced from Russia and Ukraine, such as wheat, sunflower oil, barley and oats.

mostly sourced from Russia and Ukraine, such as wheat, sunflower oil, barley and oats.

That is a good topic for discussion. How and when Russia and Ukraine turned into partial wheat, sunflower oil, barley and oats market monopolists? The land, soil on their territory are not so unique, that makes it the only place where these cultures can be produced. The earth is huge. We cant find another place to plant wheat and wait for harvest, while consuming current supplies? 

That is a good topic for discussion. How and when Russia and Ukraine turned into partial wheat, sunflower oil, barley and oats market monopolists? The land, soil on their territory are not so unique, that makes it the only place where these cultures can be produced. The earth is huge. We cant find another place to plant wheat and wait for harvest, while consuming current supplies? 

Ukraine has about 9% of the world's black soil reserves, about 30% of European reserves and covers an area of ​​about 27 million hectares (46% of the country's territory). At the same time, 22 million hectares are arable land suitable for agribusiness.

9% you say... Is this land oriented on the territory, where military operation happens now, or it is far away from war actions? I am sure that war is not happening on the whole territory of Ukraine. Does it mean that less than 9% worlds black soil reserve is unused and not producing wheat. Right ? Wheat disappearance does not look that scary after all. Based on food range stores present, it does not look like world will never see wheat again.

Here are the 10 countries with the most wheat production:

1. China (134,254,710 tons)
2. India (107,590,000 tons)
3. Russia (85,896,326 tons)
4. United States (49,690,680 tons)
5. Canada (35,183,000 tons)
6. France (30,144,110 tons)
7. Pakistan (25,247,511 tons)
8. Ukraine (24,912,350 tons)
9. Germany (22,172,100 tons)
10. Turkey (20,500,000 tons)

If food growers adopted a crypto token which was backed by food commodities and guaranteed a static exchange rate for a set number of tomatos, potatos, per token.

That could be a good format for future food emergencies.

In the dialogue of adults, it is customary not to count the arguments, but to weigh them. I provided a prooflink, and you issued a long-winded and unfounded tirade in response, falsely accusing me of distorting the facts. Do not do it this way. Ukraine mined the entrance to Odessa with old mines, which were torn from anchors during a storm and scattered across the Black Sea. Your accusations of Russia in this are groundless.

ps By the way, according to one of the versions, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the missile cruiser Moscow, was blown up on such a mine torn from the anchor.

~~~
PS about the "Moscow" trough - well, of course, 1 unfortunate, ancient Ukrainian mine (according to your imagination), sent the FLAGSHIP of the Black Sea Fleet to the bottom of the second most powerful army in the world! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I don't know what has gone wrong with the Russia - it is a rich country and have oil and gas resources.
Why are they putting themselves in trouble? They should stay happy and live and let live - YOLO

As per the United States Department of Agriculture, for the period of 2022-23, Ukraine is estimated to produce 21.5 million tonnes of wheat, which is 35% down when compared to the production for last year. On the other hand, Russian production is estimated to go up by 5% to 80.6 million tonnes. They will be exporting more than half of this export (42.3 million tonnes). These numbers mean that Russia will be exporting 4 times more wheat compared to Ukraine for 2022-23. Considering the increased price levels of wheat ($495 per tonne for April 2022), the Russian government will be receiving a few billion USD from export duties alone.

Like most people predict, they could definitely end up making a lot more profit during this war, the whole sanctions and war thing caused the prices of oil, gas, wheat all gone up, meaning they are making a killing out of this war. However, you have to understand that politically speaking, this gave a message to all other nations, saying "find someone else, Russia is the enemy now" and that is going to hurt them a lot in the next decade or two.

Wheat will be handled one way or another for now, we are going to find wheat either directly from Russia, or from a third party that buys from Russia, like oil. However, if we start to see some eastern bloc, even some Asian nations turn into fully wheat builders, do not be shocked.