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WTO Director General warns rising food prices may prompt unrest in poor countries

25 March 2022 10:52 (UTC +04:00)

World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the hike in food prices that is happening as a result of the situation in Ukraine may prompt unrest among undernourished people in poverty-stricken countries, APA reports citing Sputnik.

"I think we should be very worried. The impact on food prices and hunger this year and next could be substantial. Food and energy are the two biggest items in the consumption baskets of poor people all over the world," Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview with The Guardian, adding that "it is poor countries and poor people within poor countries that will suffer the most."

The WTO chief went on to say that the WTO member countries should avoid the strategy of restricting the export of their own food supplies, providing an example of the so-called "vaccine apartheid" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is a natural reaction to keep what you have — we saw that with vaccines. But we shouldn't make the same mistake with food," she added.

Okonjo-Iweala also said that Russian and Ukrainian wheat supplies account for 24% of the global market, and that Ukraine provides about 50% of wheat to the World Food Programme, warning of a new possible catastrophe.

"If we don't think about how to mitigate the impact of the war that will be another catastrophe not just this year but next year," she said, adding that "we are talking to our members and urging them not to compound this crisis by having export restrictions on food."