Major agricultural producers including EU, US, pledges to ensure global food security

Major agricultural producers, including the European Union, United States, Canada and Australia, have pledged on Friday to ensure global food security despite the disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The 51 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) mentioned in a joint statement said, “We are committed to working together to ensure that sufficient, safe, affordable as well as accessible at all times to all people, including the poorest, the most vulnerable and the displaced.”

They promised to keep agricultural & food markets “open, predictable and transparent by not imposing unjustified trade-restrictive measures on agricultural and agri-food products or key agricultural production inputs.”

The signatories stressed that emergency measures introduced to mitigate food security impacts “should be as undisruptive as possible, targeted, proportionate and temporary.”

They also committed to not “imposing export prohibitions or restrictions on foodstuff purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes” by the World Food Programme. The organization is on the frontlines of the effort to offset the huge losses caused by the effects of the war in Ukraine on its usually massive production of grains and oils.

Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower oil. Russia is also the world’s biggest exporter of fertilizers and gas.