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Ukraine: Food Security - Interview with Chief Economist Maximo Torero

The ongoing war in Ukraine “is affecting the whole world’s food security” said the Chief Economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Maximo Torero, adding that the organization expects “that for next year, the situation will be extremely tight, especially for the most vulnerable economies around the world.”

Duration 3m43s

Edit Version International

Video Type Video News Release (VNR)

Date 04/01/2022 8:54 PM

File size 516.52 MB

Unique ID UF2GPP

All editorial uses permitted

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist STORY: FAO / UKRAINE FOOD SECURITY

TRT: 3:46

SOURCE: FAO /FILE

RESTRITIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS

DATELINE: 25 MARCH 2022, ROME, ITALY /FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – ROME ITALY

1.Wide shot, FAO Headquarters

2.Med shot, entrance to HQ with FAO sign

25 MARCH 2022, ROME, ITALY

3.SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO:

“What is happening in Ukraine with the Russian Federation is affecting the whole world’s food security. We must understand that we were already in a world that have 166 more million people chronically undernourished because of COVID 19. In the world, 3 billion people didn't have access to healthy diets. And in this situation, we are now facing significant increase in prices of all commodities and significant increase in prices of (food) inputs. So what this means is that we expect undernourishment, chronic undernourishment to keep going up. And we also expect that for next year, the situation will be extremely tight, especially for the most vulnerable economies around the world.”

FILE – 2015, NIGER

4.Various shots, village market

25 MARCH 2022, ROME, ITALY

5.SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO:

“Our job, as FAO, working together with WFP and other partners, is first to assure our humanitarian response to the people that really need food. The second job is to try to assure that at least the planting season for the next planting season happens so that we can work with the farmers and try to provide them seeds and fertilizers so that they can keep producing. For the people moving out of Ukraine, of course, that are displaced because of the conflict there we work with other agencies to try to support them through humanitarian mechanisms like, for example, cash transfers. But there is a third element which is important in terms of the impact, which is all the other people in the world which were already in the food insecurity situation and because of the increasing prices that are coming out as a result of what is happening, we also need to help them, because they are also already in emergency.”

FILE – MARCH 2018, COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH

9. Various shots, Rohingya people in refugee camp

25 MARCH 2022, ROME, ITALY

7.SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO:

So, the poorest countries were already in a huge budget constraint. And if their import bill is increasing because of the increasing prices, they don't have the resources to do. They cannot get more debt. They are already indebted. And that's where we are working to try to see if we can help to reactivate the concept of an import facility for the most needed countries so that they can minimize and increase their resilience during especially this period of time.”

FILE – 10 JULY 2018, BANGAR EL SOKOR, NUBARIA, BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

8. Wide shot, farmers harvesting tomatoes

9. Wide shot, farmers loading tomatoes on a truck

10. Wide shot, worker placing tomatoes to dry

25 MARCH 2022, ROME, ITALY

11.SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO:

“And we are trying to work with those countries in North Africa especially, which are the ones in the fastest emergency on how we can diversify the sourcing through contacts in Argentina or other key exporting countries of of wheat like Australia or Canada so that they can have other ways in which they can procure.”

FILE – DATE UNKNOW, UKRAINE

12.Wide shot, man walking in wheat field

13.Pan right, wheat field

25 MARCH 2022, ROME, ITALY

14.SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO:

“But at the same time, we need to in parallel, start building a reconstruction plan for Ukraine. So when the conflict stops, we can quickly move back into production of this country, given how good its land is for production of cereals and how important it is today in terms of the world export. So we need to start planning now no matter that the conflict is ongoing so that we know under different scenarios of potential effects or impacts over the logistics of Ukraine what can be done immediately once the conflict stops.”

FILE – DATE UNKNOW, UKRAINE

15.Various shots, corn harvesting

Script The ongoing war in Ukraine “is affecting the whole world’s food security” said the Chief Economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Maximo Torero, adding that the organization expects “that for next year, the situation will be extremely tight, especially for the most vulnerable economies around the world.”

FAO is deeply concerned about the food security situation in Ukraine. The war that began on 24 February 2022 has caused extensive damage and loss of life in key population centres, spread across rural areas, and sparked massive displacement.

The war also affected food security beyond the borders of Ukraine. For some 50 countries, cereals from Ukraine and Russia accounts for at least 30 percent of imports; for 26 countries, more than half of their cereal imports come from Ukraine and Russia. These two countries are also major suppliers of fertilizers, providing more than one third of imports of over 30 countries. Rising fertilizer prices will affect agriculture production.

Together with the UN World Food Programme and other partners, FAO is working to provide the humanitarian response to the people “that really need food,” as well as to assure that the next planting season happens by providing farmers with seeds and fertilizers.

To assist refugees and displaced people in Ukraine, FAO works with other agencies “to try to support them through humanitarian mechanisms like, for example, cash transfers,” said Torero.

“But there is a third element which is important in terms of the impact, which is all the other people in the world which were already in the food insecurity situation and because of the increasing prices that are coming out as a result of what is happening, we also need to help them, because they are also already in emergency,” he said.

The poorest countries were already in a huge budget constraint, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other crisis and they cannot get more debt, the Chief Economist explained, which is why the FAO is helping “to reactivate the concept of an import facility for the most needed countries so that they can minimize and increase their resilience during especially this period of time.”

For the countries in North Africa especially, “which are the ones in the fastest emergency,” FAO is working on diversifying “the sourcing through contacts in Argentina or other key exporting countries of wheat like Australia or Canada so that they can have other ways in which they can procure,” the Chief Economist said, adding that “at the same time, we need to in parallel, start building a reconstruction plan for Ukraine. So when the conflict stops, we can quickly move back into production of this country, given how good its land is for production of cereals and how important it is today in terms of the world export.”

It is uncertain whether Ukraine will be able to harvest existing crops, plant new ones or sustain livestock production as the conflict evolves. As insecurity persists, and both local and national supply chains are disrupted, people are likely to fall deeper into emergency levels of hunger and malnutrition.

FAO called for agricultural production to be allowed to resume immediately and safely to avoid further potential impact on food security in Ukraine – and beyond – in the coming days, weeks and months.

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