Norwegian fertilizer producer Yara has said a $10 billion funding gap for the UN food program is urgently needed as sanctions on Russian fertilizers and lower Ukrainian exports could spell disaster for the world.
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“The world has realized that food can be a weapon, and now it is using it,” said Yara CEO Svein Tore Holseter.
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He added that anti-Russian sanctions have reduced global fertilizer supplies by 15 percent, and the indirect impact of restrictions was much more serious – the agricultural sector was hit hard by supply disruptions and rising gas prices.
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Holseter called for a better response to such emergencies and to close the $10 billion World Food Program funding gap. The deficit arose because of rising prices for food, fuel and logistics, as well as because sponsors from the Gulf countries refuse to release the promised funds.
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Earlier, the official representative of the UN World Food Program (WFP), Thomson Peary, said that due to the situation in Ukraine and rising food prices in the world, the risk of global famine is increasing. He recalled that Ukraine and Russia account for 30 percent of world wheat exports, 20 percent of corn exports and 76 percent of sunflower supplies. German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze described the possible crisis as the strongest since World War II.
