International

Global food shortage could appear in weeks, warns FAO

Products

Disruptions are seen in almost every market due to protectionist policies and restrictive measures adopted to fight the covid-19 threat.

Posted on Mar 27 ,10:40

Global food shortage could appear in weeks, warns FAO

UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warns about the risk of a global food shortage in the following months, as restrictive measures applied in the fight against covid-19 and protectionist policies taken by several countries around the globe are disrupting the global food trade on a massive scale.
The Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), QU Dongyu, today urged leaders from the G20 countries to take measures for global food systems to continue to work well, particularly in relation to access to food for the world's poor and most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food systems and all dimensions of food security across the world. No country is immune. We have to ensure that food value chains are not disrupted and continue to function well and promote the production and availability of diversified, safe and nutritious food for all", said FAO's head.
The Director-General said lockdowns and restrictions on movement could disrupt food production, processing, distribution and sales, both nationally and globally, with the potential to have an "immediate and severe" impact on those restricted by mobility.

Dongyu Qu said global food markets are well supplied but there is growing concern and that measures should be taken to ensure that both national food markets and the world market continue to be a transparent, stable and reliable source of food supply.
Referring to the 2007-08 global food price crisis, FAO's Director-General said uncertainty at that time triggered a wave of export restrictions by some countries, while others started importing food aggressively. Qu said this contributed to excessive price volatility, which was damaging for low-income food-deficit countries.

A slowdown in production and distribution has already been reported in the EU markets, where suppliers from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland are complaining from bottlenecks created at national borders and the lack of personnel. In some cases, meat processed in some countries around the globe have been contained to cover the domestic demand, ignoring some export orders.

 NEWSLETTER - Stay informed with the latest news!

Comments





Similar articles

AUSTRALIA

MLA: Significant strides made in North America market

Central to the Aussie Meat Academy are influential food industry professionals who are passionate...


Read more Read more
WALES

Muslim markets support the future of Welsh Lamb sales, says expert

“Looking at the United Kingdom alone, there are 3.9m Muslims and our research suggests that...


Read more Read more
INTERNATIONAL

A year of milestones for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region

A record-breaking Gulfood attendance set the tone for the year, with tradeshows and exhibitions b...


Read more Read more
Websolutions by Angular Software and SpiderClass