Russia-Ukraine crisis: Food prices set to zoom on threat to shipments

Food inflation is already plaguing global consumers, but now the price gains could get even sharper as Russia’s attack on Ukraine threatens key shipments of some of the world’s staple crops. 

Ukraine and Russia together account for more than a quarter of the global trade in wheat, as well as a fifth of corn sales. Port and railway closures in Ukraine, nicknamed the breadbasket of Europe, have already started to throw the nation’s commodity exports into chaos. 

It’s not just the threats to grain shipments that could drive inflation. Russia is also a major low-cost exporter of nearly every kind of fertiliser. It’s hard to overstate how important fertiliser is to the food supply chain —practically every plate of food you touch has gotten there with the help fertilisers. If global trade gets disrupted, it will mean higher costs for farmers across the globe, and in turn, more food inflation.