Food systems and their impact. Grain war in Europe

Political conflicts bring a lot of instability into food systems, effecting not only the sides of the conflict, but also neighbouring countries and the whole supply chain. The most recent example is the war in Ukraine and its impact on grain in Europe and beyond.

Before the Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukraine was the world’s seventh largest exporter of wheat, fourth largest exporter of barley and the biggest exporter of sunflower seeds. The war led to destabilisation of grain supply chain, as export was restricted. This had a knock-on effect on the price of grain worldwide, effecting people in the poorest countries.

As the conflict progressed, Ukraine was able to find different routes to export its grains which stabilised the situation on the grain market but at the same time it created a different set of problems in the region.

It is estimated that between April 2022 and March 2023, 4.1 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain entered neighbouring Poland with the purpose of further export to the EU, however 3.4 million tonnes of grain staying in the country. This has caused a series of issue for Polish farmers as the cheaper grain from Ukraine undermined their own produce. Since then, Polish farmers have been blocking border crossing with Ukraine and lobbying government to impose a ban on Ukrainian grain imports. The ban on Ukrainian grain sales in Poland, as well as Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, came to force after joined lobbying of the European Commission by those countries. The Ukrainian grain could enter those countries only for transit to further parts of the EU. This also led to a wave of protests by farmers across many European countries.

Understandably every country wants to protect its own domestic market and the interest of its citizens. But what about people in poorer parts of the world that are heavily dependent on the grain from Ukraine. Is their voice heard too?

Not to mention the tonnes of grain that have been wasted in this process, blocked by successive countries, unable to reach those that really need it.