The corona pandemic could trigger an international food crisis, according to the Chinese agriculture ministry in Beijing today.
Many agricultural value chains are already disrupted. Some countries have started hamstering agricultural commodities.
The rapid spread of the global epidemic is unsettling agricultural commodities and markets worldwide, said Chinese Agriculture Minister Yu Kangzhen today.
Should the pandemic continue to spread and escalate, international food trade would definitely be disrupted and a new global food crisis would then be at risk. In some countries, trade is already disrupted and supply is impaired, so that price fluctuations have increased there.
The corona pandemic that started in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year has already infected 2.3 million people and 159,000 people have already died from or with the virus.
Decommissioning and quarantine to prevent the virus from spreading further broke supply chains in China.Industry is struggling to recruit enough workers, which means that poultry and pork fattening is delayed in the world's largest meat market. Even if China has enough domestic grain, other important agricultural products such as soybeans and edible oils are missing. China's aquaculture, vegetable and tea exports are also impacted by the crisis.
While infection rates in Wuhan would have decreased, new herds in the northeast of the country in Heilongjiang Province are now at risk. The risk of a renewed corona crisis is still high in China. In addition, China is still fighting the spread of African swine fever (ASF), which has decimated the herd of pigs there by at least 40%. In March, 13 new outbreaks were reported to the authorities. The ASF risk has increased significantly again and the build-up of the herd with imports of breeding sows from Europe is hampered.
The government lures its farmers with high producer prices and a range of political benefits.
Yu added that vermin, drought and flooding are also endangering agricultural production in his country this year.
Source
Hansa Terminhandel GmbH
