Consumers around the world will feel the “enormous impact” of Russia’s war on Ukraine through sharply higher food prices and significant disruption to agricultural supply chains, according to industry executives and leading European officials.

John Rich, executive chair of Ukraine’s leading food supplier MHP, said he feared for the vital spring planting season, which is critical not only for domestic supplies in Ukraine but also the huge quantities of grains and vegetable oil that the country exports around the globe.

“This conflict has had an enormous impact on Ukraine and Russia’s ability to supply the world,” Rich said.

Together with Russia, Ukraine is a leading grain and sunflower oil supplier to world markets, accounting for just under a tenth of global wheat exports, about 13 per cent of corn and more than half of the sunflower oil market, according to UN Comtrade. Prices of the commodities soared after Russia’s invasion, with wheat at one point hitting an all-time high.

Rich warned of “spiralling inflation” in the cost of wheat, corn and other commodities — prices of which were rising before the hostilities because of drought and high demand as economies emerged from the pandemic. “It’s a pretty toxic mix,” he said.

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