German minister calls for an alliance for global food security

The Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Svenja Schulze, amid the events in Ukraine, advocated the creation of an alliance on global food security in order to prevent mass starvation in the world. He said this in an interview published on Wednesday with the media group Funke.

Schulze intends to promote her initiative at the April session of the World Bank in Washington. "Our goal should be to save millions of people from starvation," the minister said. "I will be advocating in Washington to ensure greater coordination of our efforts to combat the food crisis - among donors, as well as with international organizations and everyone who wants to take part," she added. At the same time, it is indicated that an example for creating such an alliance should be the international COVAX mechanism, the purpose of which is to ensure fair access to vaccines against coronavirus throughout the world.

In this context, Schulze warned that events in Ukraine would have dramatic consequences far beyond that country's borders. “The worst global food crisis in decades is looming, and it will particularly hit the poorest in Africa, the Middle East and Asia,” the minister stressed.

According to an internal document of the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Russia and Ukraine together account for about 20% of corn exports and 30% of wheat exports worldwide. Countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan are particularly dependent on grain imports.