One wave after another, the food crisis has become a problem that all countries have to face.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused energy and food prices to soar, and wool comes from sheep. According to news, the British CPI index soared 9% in April, hitting a 40-year high. The Bank of England even predicts that food prices will still soar in the future.
Earlier in May, Russia relented and Ukrainian grain could be exported, which relieved the tense grain market. wheat and other major grain prices fell slightly. However, Ukraine's grain can only fill the short-term market gap. According to foreign media reports, due to the impact of the conflict, Ukraine's wheat production this year and next year will be reduced by about 10 million tons. This means that if Ukraine empties its previous food stocks, the food crisis still needs to be solved.
To make matters worse, on March 3rd, local time, foreign media reported that there was a problem with the wheat sowing environment in the United States, and a "dry and flood" situation was occurring. It is reported that now is the time for sowing spring wheat and harvesting winter wheat in the United States.
As the state with the highest wheat production in the United States, Kansas is suffering from extreme drought weather. Thousands of acres of wheat have withered. It is expected that the output will drop by more than a quarter, and 6% of the farmland will be abandoned. This is only a conservative estimate. In fact, there will only be more abandoned farmland.
On the contrary, North Dakota, which accounts for half of the spring wheat production in the United States, is troubled by too much precipitation. In April this year, the state experienced a blizzard, and a large amount of arable land was covered with heavy snow. Subsequently, the melting of ice and snow caused floods, and the area of arable land in the state was significantly reduced. According to statistics as of May 22, the cultivated land currently sown with spring wheat is less than half of the plan, which is the lowest level since 1996.
As the fourth largest wheat exporter in the world, the United States is bound to have a serious impact on the global grain market, and grain prices may skyrocket again.
Text | Chen Xiaoning Title | Zeng Yi Review | Li Zepu
