(UnitedVoice.com) – The US is currently gripped by a cost of living crisis that already has most Americans feeling the pinch. Now business analysts say there’s a lot worse to come. The war in Ukraine means food is about to get a lot more expensive.
Huge swaths of the global food supply come from Ukraine, accounting for 15% of the market.
But this season, the engine of Ukraine’s food supply has ground to a halt.https://t.co/HoBuQtsnqP
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 10, 2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 shocked the world, but it also rammed home some uncomfortable facts – and one of those is that a lot of our food comes from the huge, fertile plains that are now being fought over. In fact, between them, Russia and Ukraine supply 29% of the world’s wheat, 19% of corn and a massive 80% of sunflower oil.
Now, Ukraine’s farmers are carrying rifles on the front line, and Russian exports have been hit by international sanctions. Just to top it all off, a shortage of fertilizer has seen prices for that double, too, meaning many American farmers can’t afford to plant crops this year at all. Wheat prices are already skyrocketing under this pressure, and there’s no sign of them stabilizing.
In the two weeks since the Russian invasion, global wheat prices have already set new records twice. On March 5, Chicago grain futures closed 41% up on the week before – the biggest increase in 60 years. This week they’ve just kept climbing. Soon that’s going to show up in the price of bread on the shelf, and then the cost of living will really start to bite.
Copyright 2022, UnitedVoice.com
