According to Reuters, a World Food Programme (WFP) official has said food supply chains in Ukraine were collapsing, with key infrastructure such as bridges and trains destroyed by bombs and many grocery stores and warehouses empty.
Jakob Kern, WFP Emergency Coordinator for the Ukraine crisis, expressed concern about the situation in “encircled cities” such as Mariupol, saying that food and water supplies were running out and that its convoys had been unable to enter.
“The country’s food supply chain is falling apart. Movements of goods have slowed down due to insecurity and the reluctance of drivers,” Kern told a Geneva media briefing by videolink from Krakow, Poland.
“Inside Ukraine our job is in effect, to replace the broken commercial food supply chains,” he added
The UN agency has pre-positioned bulk food, wheat flour and food rations outside cities under fire. It has so far delivered 12,000 tonnes of food within the country, all sourced from within Ukraine.
WFP will be importing food there as part of an expanding emergency operation that aims to assist more than three million people.
WFP buys nearly half of its global wheat supplies from Ukraine and Kern said that the crisis there since the Russian invasion on February 24 had pushed up world food prices sharply.
“With global food prices at an all-time high, WFP is also concerned about the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food security globally, especially hunger hot spots,” he said, warning of “collateral hunger” in other places like Yemen and Lebanon that rely heavily on Ukraine imports.
Further reading
- Food security affected as Ukraine agriculture season begins
- Russian invasion risks hunger in Middle East and North Africa
- We may be headed for global food cost crises in 2022
