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It only took 24 hours last month for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India – the second largest wheat producer in the world – to put aside his plans to “feed the world”.
In April, Modi had openly said that the most populous democracy in the world was ready to fill the part of the gap left by Ukraine in the global grain market by increasing its wheat exports, following five harvesting successive records. India traditionally only exports wheat in simple amounts, maintaining most of its plants for domestic consumption.
On May 12, the Indian Ministry of Trade & Industry said that he was preparing to send a delegation to nine countries to export a record of 10 million tons of wheat of this fiscal year – sharply rose the previous season.
The first time the revision came down to the Indian wheat plant in early May as a heat resulting from the heat wave. Then the data on May 12 shows that inflation in the country 1.4 billion has jumped to the highest level of almost eight years because of the higher price of food and fuel, driven by the Ukraine War.
Worried about the increase in inflation, which has contributed to overthrow the government of the previous congress party in 2014, the Modi office told the Ministry of Trade on May 13 to place “brakes” wheat exports immediately, according to a government official, who asked not to be identified because of sensitivity this problem.
This (inflation data) encourages the government to issue orders in the middle of the night” forced a prohibition on wheat exports, the second source said.
The news of the prohibition by India, which was the only main wheat exporter at that time, pushed Chicago Wheat Futures 6% higher after the market was reopened on Monday.
India is one of at least 19 countries that has introduced restrictions on food exports since the war in Ukraine made prices soaring, inhibiting the flow of international trade for several agricultural products and triggered protests in violence in several developing countries.
From Delhi to Kuala Lumpur, Buenos Aires to Belograd, the government imposed restrictions, when economic damage caused by Pandemi Covid-19, combined with factors such as extreme weather and bottleneck supply chains, has pushed hunger throughout the world that has never been happened before.
The US World Food Program (WFP) said that in April the number of people who face acute food vulnerability – when their inability to consume adequate food put their lives or livelihoods in danger – it has doubled since 2019 to 276 million in 81 countries Inside in the country in 81 countries in operations, before the Ukraine conflict begins.
War – which interferes with exports from Russia and Ukraine, two agricultural power plants – are expected to increase that number at least 33 million, most in Africa Sub -Sahara, estimated.
Under the rules of the world trade organization, members can impose export prohibitions or restrictions on food or other products if they are temporary and required to ease “critical deficiencies”.
Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal told Reuters last month that he had been in contact with the WTO and International Monetary Funds (IMF) to explain that India needs to prioritize food security, stabilize domestic prices and protect from hoarding.
But export restrictions are at risk of worsening the increase in global food prices: producing domino effects as a deepening crisis encouraging other countries to take similar steps, said Michele Ruta, the main economist in the macroeconomic economy, global trade & investment from the World Bank group.
Many economists say the global food crisis is worse than the last peaked in 2008, which is driven by factors including drought, global population growth, higher meat consumption in large developing countries, and increased plant use to produce biofuels.
