Global food prices are set to soar still further after Russia’s attack on Ukraine threatened supply chains, pushing up commodities markets that had already hit multiyear highs.
Russia and Ukraine together account for a third of the world’s wheat exports, a fifth of its corn trade and almost 80 per cent of sunflower oil production, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The attack has led to a ban on all commercial vessels in the inland sea of Azov — which connects to the Black Sea — and the closure of Ukrainian ports. Some 90 per cent of Ukrainian grain exports are transported by sea and the disruption is expected to wreak havoc on food supply flows, said analysts.