RTFri, 03 Jun 2022 14:13 UTC
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Western sanctions against Russia threaten Africa with a food security crisis, the head of the African Union (AU) and Senegalese President Macky Sall said during a meeting, in Sochi, on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He advocated the abolition of restrictions that apply to Russian grain crops and mineral fertilizers.
"Sanctions against the Russian Federation have exacerbated the situation because we no longer have access to grain, especially wheat from Russia, and most importantly, to fertilizers, which poses a serious threat to food security on the continent."
He pointed out two major problems, the global food crisis and anti-Russia sanctions, and said those problems needed to be worked out so that food products, in particular grains and fertilizers, are removed from the sanctions list.
President Putin, meanwhile, said that Russian-African relations are currently at a new stage of development, which is very important for both sides.
"I would like to remind that our country has always been on the side of Africa, supported Africa in the fight against colonialism."
According to Putin, the volume of
bilateral trade between Russia and the continent has been growing and is up by more than 34% in the first months of this year.
The United Nations has warned recently of a worsening global food crisis due to the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia. The situation is particularly dire in East Africa, a region that has traditionally procured roughly 90% of its imported grain from Russia and Ukraine.
According to the UN World Food Program, even before the crisis in Ukraine, around 13 million people in the Horn of Africa suffered from hunger. Moreover, according to the agency, the situation could become even more troublesome due to a drought that affected crops and killed livestock in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
The UN estimates that the global food crisis could put 323 million people on the brink of starvation.
Comment: Backfire? Washington would deserve it!
The continued Western sanctions on Russia will hurt the global economy and could exacerbate problems in the US itself, Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to Washington, has warned.
"The declared measures are yet another testament to Washington's Russophobic hysteria. They go hand in hand with the attempts to blame Russia for global economic imbalances, including the increase in fuel prices. The flawed restrictions policies will only make world affairs worse. They will lead to new supply chain disruptions and impact food security."
The Russian envoy added that, even facing sanctions, Moscow is ready to service its debts without delays. Washington's attempts to derail this process "will only undermine the trust in the US."
Mistakes? Or was a food crisis part of the plan?
The looming global food crisis that could result from skyrocketing food prices was enabled by a series of policy mistakes by Washington and Brussels, Maksim Oreshkin, economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told RT. The conflict in Ukraine alone could not have caused the crisis on such a massive scale.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's international food price index shows that between April 2020 and April 2022, global food prices rose by more than 60%. The increase occurred for the most part before February 2022, when Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine.
In the four years from 2016 to 2020, the index grew by less than 7 points, but it increased by a whopping 27 points, from 98.1 to 125.7, in 2020-21. After the second year of the pandemic, the index stood at 141.1.
Since Russia's military operation began, the index has risen by a further 17 points.
"Swings like that, with such huge increases in prices, are not happening due to one reason. It's always a combination of a number of reasons which is leading to such a result."
He points to America's overreaction to the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the first major factors that triggered the food price hikes. Since February 2020, the US "increased the money supply by almost 40%," he said, adding that the $6 trillion the US printed to support its economy ended up flooding global markets, and led to the rise in food, commodity and energy prices.
Europe's over-reliance on renewable energy, which drew resources away from food production, and on short-term gas contracts that led to gas price hikes in late 2021, are also significant factors. Up to 4% of biofuel in Germany is made from food and animal feed.
Oreshkin said these factors also led to a decrease in fertilizer production, which in turn hit harvests and drove up food prices. The waves of sanctions unleashed by the US and its allies on Moscow after the start of the military operation in Ukraine significantly exacerbated the crisis.
According to Oreshkin, the 20 million tons of wheat supposedly blocked in Ukraine account for 2.5% of global wheat production. He also stated that Russia is prepared to export 13 million more tons this year than in 2021.
He also pointed to global food inequality as a root cause. "In reality, there is enough food on this planet," but developed nations such as the US are simply consuming much more food than the others around the world.
"They're printing the money, they're taking all the food, and of course they are taking the food from those who cannot afford it. If countries like the United States consume less, there will be enough food for everyone."
Comment: Backfire? Washington would deserve it! Mistakes? Or was a food crisis part of the plan?