Muslim Countries Worst Hit By Global Food Crisis, Experts Say

WASHINGTON: The war in Ukraine and record high temperatures in many parts of the world this summer have increased the stress on global food security, which is having direct and devastating effects on people in poorer Arab, African and Muslim nations in particular, experts warned on Friday.

The recent collapse of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, which had allowed the export of food crops and fertilizers from Ukraine to continue despite the Russian blockade of the country, has caused chronic shortages and sharp price increases in global food markets, they said.

Meanwhile the effects of climate change, including droughts, have affected food production in Asia and Africa in particular, exacerbating the problems.
The result of this food crisis is growing levels of malnutrition in poor nations and stunted growth of children.

In the Arab world, the effects are particularly badly felt in countries with struggling economies and weak currencies, including Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan.

Speaking during a press briefing, Cary Fowler, former executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and a world-renowned expert on food security, said that more than 800 million people worldwide are now classified as food insecure.

He said this summer is the hottest on record, which has had severe effects on agriculture and crops around the globe. Asian countries have been deeply affected by the heat, which has disrupted rice production, he added.

Turning to the effects of the war in Ukraine, Fowler said: “Ukraine has historically been one of the bread baskets of the world and was one of top exporters of wheat, barley, maize and sunflower oil, which is critical in the global food-oil market.”

Globally, he explained, 136 out of 196 countries are net importers of food. Many of the top 15 importers of Ukrainian grain are developing countries, he added, which suffer from high levels of childhood malnutrition and stunted growth.

The rates for these conditions are alarmingly high in some poor Arab and Muslim nations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He said the malnutrition rate has reached 22 percent in Egypt, 28 percent in Bangladesh, 38 percent in Libya, 31 percent in India, 18 percent in Kenya and 31 percent in Indonesia.

Ambassador James O’Brien, head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department, said that Ukraine supplied 10 percent of global food supplies before the war began in February 2022.

He blamed Moscow for the conflict, and accused it of “attacking the global food system” by deliberately targeting Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure so that global prices would rise and Russia would be in better a position in negotiations with Western nations.

O’Brien emphasized the important role the Black Sea Grain Initiative had played in efforts to reduce the effects of the global food crisis, before Russia withdrew its permission for shipments from Ukraine in July.

“It’s a critical pathway, especially for the global south,” he said, adding that in 2022 Ukraine exported about 55 million tons of grain, 32 million of which went through the initiative.

“More than 19 million tons of the 32 tons went to low-income countries, and two-thirds of the wheat shipped went to the poorest countries,” he said.