Wheat price rise hits Nigeria, 44 other countries globally
The rising price of wheat has hit Nigeria and 44 other countries following the Russian/Ukraine five-month war.
Of the most affected countries including the U.S, 18 are in Africa that depend entirely on Ukraine’s wheat supply.
Prof. Abba Gambo of the Faculty of Agriculture, Yobe State University (YSU), Damaturu; raised the alarm at the weekend, while presenting a lead paper on the United Nations (UN) food system transformation pathways held in Maiduguri, Borno state.
Gambo, in the paper titled: “Global Food Crisis and Its Impact on the Nigerian agricultural sector,” disclosed that the two countries at war feed about 50% of the global population with wheat.
According to him, wheat is also used in the massive production of bread, flour, pasta and cakes.
He added that the World Food Programme (WFP) of the UN also gets 50% of its annual food supplies from Ukraine and Russia.
Besides, he noted that fuel, a major export of the two countries, has skyrocketed in price across the globe with the U. S being the worst hit since the February 24, 2022 war.
“Ukraine alone accounts for 25% of global fertilizer demand in the world,” he said, lamenting that the price of NPK fertilizer also increased from N7, 000 to N30, 000 a bag this year.
He said that the global food crisis intensified by 50 per cent within the first week of the Russian/Ukraine fight that also claimed many lives and property.
Lamenting the global dependency on wheat, he said that the two countries at war feed about half of the global population with wheat, which is used for the production of bread that could be afforded.
In overcoming the food crisis, he said that recently, the Chairman of the African Union (AU), President Macky Sall of Senegal, was in Russia to lobby for softer restrictions on Ukraine’s exports of wheat to Africa.
Besides the AU, the EU is also lobbying for the release of about 22 million metric tons of wheat stored in Ukraine.
He said that in Nigeria the prices of flour, bread, pasta and cakes have skyrocketed by 125% in five months.
Gambo, therefore warned that the prices of these products will continue to rise unless an alternative to wheat supplies is found.