Ukraine’s and Russia’s share of total wheat imports. Source: UN Comtrade, 2020 figures
Ukraine's and Russia's share of total wheat imports. Source: UN Comtrade, 2020 figures - Wageningen World The abrupt loss of cheap Ukrainian wheat rocked the world market, hitting poor consumers in Africa particularly hard. And wheat will remain expensive for a while yet, economists from Wageningen fear. Not because of scarcity, but because of the sharp increase in the price of fertilizers. 'Perhaps it is time to rethink the far-reaching liberalization of markets.' Photo above: Chris McGrath / Getty Images Kees Huizinga, a Dutch farmer in the Ukraine, has been a frequent guest on talk shows, where he has expressed his concern about the impact of the war on the food supply. The country is often described as a 'breadbasket', and yet Ukraine's share of the world wheat market is limited, says economist Petra Berkhout of Wageningen Economic Research. 'Things like weather conditions cause annual fluctuations in global wheat production, and in some years these fluctuations are much bigger than the Ukrainian yield.
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