These are the words on the tip of John Rich’s tongue as he oversees the operations of MHP, Ukraine’s food producer, as war rages in the country.
The World Food Programme (WFP), the food aid arm of the United Nations, has not gone so far as to say that the scenario may simply be apocalyptic, but believes in the effects of war, especially due to the relief in grain exports. , may simply mean a “catastrophe of hunger”. According to an April WFP report, up to 323 million people could be food insecure by 2022 as a result of the conflict, up from 276 million before the war.
“I don’t see any transparent path to appease the tunnel,” Rich, MHP’s chief executive, told Insider, adding that, without a solution to the food crisis, he believes “hundreds of millions of other people across the planet” will be affected.
The solution is obvious, but it is hampered by geopolitical conflicts. Ukrainian ports along the Black Sea are blocked through Russia, dotted with mines and otherwise dangerous to cross due to fighting. But they are imperative to ensure that Ukrainian products feed giant swaths of the world, adding up to 12% and 17% of the world’s supply of wheat and maize.
Rich is at the forefront of the crisis and echoes the rallying cry of global food security experts since the beginning of the conflict: open the ports. He fears that otherwise his company’s key grain production will go to waste.
The London-listed company produces poultry and grows cereals. Its staff has adapted to the “new normal” of delivering food in a war zone, with missiles flying over them.
“We will export a lot from Ukraine this year,” the president said. “God knows how long it will take us because it’s incredibly difficult. “
In fact, it is possible that forty-five million tons of the MHP crop will be stored this year, a crop that “feeds the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, everyone,” according to Rich.
Rich noted that some crops oxidize faster than others, such as sunflower seeds, a crop that is among those trapped in Ukraine’s seaports, adding the largest, the port of Odessa.
The damaged crops are a cause for fear because production from the MHP crop has been affected by the war, Rich said. In fact, most of the company’s operations are located in western and southwestern Ukraine, where little fighting has occurred. In addition, MHP purchased and stored all of its tickets for the 2022 season in 2021.
MHP is on track to produce a quarter of a million tons of wheat this summer. But due to a combination of export difficulties and a drop in consumption in Ukraine due to residents fleeing, it is possible that much of it will end up in storage.
On May 26, a senior Russian government official said the Kremlin would allow ships carrying food to leave Ukrainian ports in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, according to the Interfax news agency. Ukraine called the suggestion “clear blackmail,” according to CNN.
With ports blocked, exports from Ukraine to alleviate the developing food crisis will have to be made by rail. According to Rich, this poses a number of demanding situations due to the evolution of the track gauge between Ukraine and the EU. It will also be slow due to customs formalities and veterinary and cross-border fitness checks, he added.
The pandemic and China’s upcoming zero-COVID policy, as well as the replacement of climate that devastates crops through droughts and storms around the world, already threatened the food security of millions of other people before the war, Rich said.
“It was the war that broke the camel’s back,” he added.