|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Strait of Hormuz conflict threatens global food prices: FAO
|
|
Saturday, 23 May, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Rome, Italy
|
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is not a temporary shipping disruption but the beginning of a systemic agrifood shock that could trigger a severe global food price crisis within six to 12 months. Avoiding such an outcome will require alternative trade routes, restraint on export restrictions, protection of humanitarian flows, and buffers to absorb higher transport costs, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned.
The time has come to "start seriously thinking about how to increase the absorption capacity of countries, how to increase their resilience to this choke, so that we start to minimise the potential impacts," FAO chief economist, Maximo Torero, said in a new podcast.
This involves exploring "intervention by governments, by international financial organisations, by the private sector, and by UN agencies and other research centres to try to help countries to be able to cope better with the current situation," Torero said.
According to FAO, the window for preventive action is closing quickly. Decisions taken now by farmers and governments on fertiliser use, imports, financing and crop choices will determine whether a severe global food price crisis emerges within six to 12 months.
The impact is already visible. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of globally traded food commodities, rose for a third consecutive month in April, driven by high energy costs and disruptions linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
The shock is unfolding in stages: energy, fertiliser, seeds, lower yields, commodity price increases, then food inflation.
Mitigating these impacts will require shifting to alternative land and sea routes, including via the eastern Arabian Peninsula, western Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea, said David Laborde, Director of FAO’s Agrifood Economics Division. However, these routes have limited capacity, making it critical to avoid export restrictions by major producers.
“This is especially critical for safeguarding humanitarian food flows,” said Torero.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|