Shocks to the supply of sunflower seed oil have led to a 23% increase in vegetable oil prices and contributed to an upwards of 40% spike in palm oil, commonly used for cooking in Indonesia.
In East Africa, where drought and civil war in Ethiopia are causing widespread hunger, the war in Ukraine threatens to further increase the cost of wheat and other staples, an official with the humanitarian group Mercy Corps told the New York Times.
Oleksandr Kyrychyshyn, a farmer in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, says that the Russian military is preventing spring planting, suggesting further disruptions of food supply. “I don’t know if I will sow,” Kyrychyshyn told the Times. “They told us that every car that drives out into the field will be shot.”