“ (Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said that the world will experience food shortages as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and production increases were a subject of discussions at a Group of Seven meeting on Thursday. “It’s going to be real,” Biden said at a news conference in Brussels. “The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”

Biden Says to Expect ‘Real’ Food Shortages Due to Ukraine War


“ Fertilizer prices were already high before the war. They have now reached record levels amid a precipitous drop in Russian supply, according to CRU Group, which analyzes commodity markets. At the same time, more-expensive natural gas, another Russian export and a crucial ingredient in fertilizer-making, has led European fertilizer factories to scale back production.

The result is that fertilizer is about three to four times costlier now than in 2020, with far-reaching consequences for farmer incomes, agricultural yields and food prices.

Fertilizer Prices Surge as Ukraine War Cuts Supply, Leaving Farmers Shocked

There was already an ongoing global fertilizer shortage before the hostilities. Russia is the largest producer of fertilizer in the world. It was noted elsewhere that grain commodity prices are already higher than than it was at the outbreak of the Arab spring.

One wonders if it would have been better to have entered into negotiations on a security framework with Russia as they were insisting on back in December (referring to the initial post of this thread).