Severe global food price crisis is looming within 6 to 12 months, UN body says – National

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning that due to the Strait of Hormuz closure, a severe global food price crisis is looming within six to 12 months unless governments act quickly.

The warning was made in a podcast hosted by the organization that focused on the current chokehold on global energy and how fertilizer supplies are expanding through agrifood systems worldwide.

“The solution we discuss [in the] short run, medium run and long run is important really to not have to deal with a severe food price crisis in six months or one year from now,” he said.

FAO chief economist Maximo Torero also said in the podcast that governments need to “start seriously thinking about how to increase the absorption capacity of countries, how to increase their resilience to this choke, so that we start to minimize the potential impacts.”

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The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international food commodity prices, rose for a third consecutive month in April, driven by high energy costs and disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict.

The agency said the shock will unfold in stages; first with energy, then fertilizer, seeds, lower yields, commodity prices and finally food inflation reaching shoppers.

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