Countries Hoarding Grain in Response to War in Ukraine

As global food supply chains are still recovering from a two-year global pandemic, the world’s governments are hoarding grain commodities in response to the war in Ukraine - a move that U.S. officials warn could be catastrophic.

Governments across the EU, the Middle East, and Asia are scrambling to secure new sources for grain to feed their people. And compounding these difficulties, countries that are in the position to be new sources - such as Hungary, Argentina, and Turkey - have enacted restrictions on exports, claiming they need to protect their own supplies.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, along with agriculture ministers from six other major economies warned that the decision to refuse to export food commodities would further drive up prices and threaten food security and nutrition on a global scale.

And as the crisis intensifies, Vilsack said that Ukraine’s Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Roman Leshchenko spoke to the G7 from a bunker asking for help for Ukrainian farmers to harvest and plant new crops this spring.

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