Global Trade Threatened As Nations Start To Hoard Food
GLOBAL TRADE – There is now a growing threat in the global trade as nations all around the world begin to hoard food supply.
Aside from grocery shoppers who are hording food supplies amid the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there are now a number of governments who began securinc their domestic goods.
For instance, Kazakhstan, which is one of the biggest shippers in the globe of wheat flour, banned exports of the product, as well as carrots, potatoes, and even sugar, according to an article by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Serbia ceased its exporting of sunflower oil and other food supplies, while Russia is considering to ban shipments as they evaluate the condition per week.
The current issue raised a question if this is the beginning of a wave of food nationalism which might eventually cause a drastic effect on supply chains and trade flows.
Research director of emerging risks Tim Benton of Chatham House, London, said that this is currently happening, adding that the lockdown might worsen.
Despite having enough food supplies, logistical obstacles made it harder as the pandemic resulted in unprecedented measures, food hoarding, and labor crunch threat.
As per the report, people around the world still try to stack food as the virus’ economic fallout begins. These sparked up memories of how protectionism could rather cause harmful effects than good. This was proven by anxiety-driven acts and inability to respond to crop failures or other supply problems.
Many governments are currently implementing extreme protocol, which includes curfews, and crowd limits.
Other nations added more strategic reserves. In one instance, China pledged to purchase its domestic harvest more despite the government having huge stocks of rice and wheat.
Algeria and Turkey, which are key importers of wheat, also released new tenders, while Morocco suspends importing wheat until mid-June.
What do you think? How will you react to this? Let us know more about it in the comments below.
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