The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning that as a consequence of the Strait of Hormuz closure, a severe global food price crisis is looming inside six to 12 months unless governments act quickly.
The warning was made in a podcast hosted by the organization that focused on the present chokehold on global energy and the way fertilizer supplies are expanding through agrifood systems worldwide.
“The answer we discuss [in the] short run, medium run and future is vital really to not need to cope with a severe food price crisis in six months or one 12 months from now,” he said.
FAO chief economist Maximo Torero also said within the podcast that governments must “start seriously eager about the best way to increase the absorption capability of nations, the best way to increase their resilience to this choke, in order that we start to reduce the potential impacts.”
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The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international food commodity prices, rose for a 3rd consecutive month in April, driven by high energy costs and disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict.
The agency said the shock will unfold in stages; first with energy, then fertilizer, seeds, lower yields, commodity prices and at last food inflation reaching shoppers.
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