Several G20 Finance Officers, including the US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, addressed this Friday in Bali (Indonesia) measures to stop the price increase of the foods and the fertilizers that are increasing hunger in the world.
The US Treasury Secretary reiterated that Moscow is using food as a “weapon of war” in Ukraine after the invasion last February, which is exacerbating, in her opinion, the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis in food security.
“Those who are being most directly affected are the poorest households in the poorest countries, families that spend a disproportionate share of their income on food are forced into harsh dilemmas,” Yellen said in a discussion on the sidelines of the meeting. G20 Finance in Nusa Dua, Bali.
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The US secretary urged the G20 to make decisions by consensus and quickly, while calling on countries not to impose restrictions on food exports or accumulate stocks.
One of the concerns expressed in the discussion was the lack of fertilizer on the market due to the war in Ukraine, which is worsening the food crisis.
Senegalese Finance Minister Amadou Hott, whose country assumed the presidency of the African Union this year, said that although food and fertilizers are not subject to sanctions in Russia and Belarus, many companies and banks prefer not to take risks when to buy from these countries.
“They are afraid of receiving sanctions in the future.
Is it possible to say very clearly that when you buy food or fertilizer from Russia, Ukraine or other places there will be no sanctions today, no sanctions tomorrow?
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Hott specified that the number of people suffering from malnutrition in Africa has risen from 230 to 310 million people after the war in Ukraine, according to the World Food Program. “According to the African Development Bank (…), Africa has a deficit of about 2 million metric tons of fertilizers this year.
This translates into some 11,000 million dollars in production losses,” assured the Senegalese minister.
Hott urged the countries of the world to act with the urgency and consensus they have shown during the covid-19 pandemic, warning that more people may die from famine than from the coronavirus.
Inflation and the food and energy crises threaten to worsen the situation of hunger, which affects 811 million people in the world, with 276 million in extreme hunger compared to 135 million before the pandemic, according to the World Food Program .
