(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 08 - "We expect clear and concrete signals from Russia, because blocking exports of grain means holding hostage and condemning to death millions of children, women and men away from the conflict front. Russia, using food as a weapon of war, he is guilty of other crimes, which are added to the atrocities already committed on the Ukrainian soil and which are visible to all ".
This was stated by the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, in a press conference with the Director General of FAO, Qu Dongyu, on the occasion of the Mediterranean Ministerial Dialogue on the Food Crisis, held at the Farnesina.
"Ukraine and Russia - Di Maio recalled - contribute to 30% of the world wheat market. Over 50 countries in the world depend for at least 30% of their needs on Ukrainian and Russian wheat, with peaks between 70% and 100% in many 'Africa and the Mediterranean area. The prices of wheat and other basic products, already high due to the pandemic, are now at an all-time high. In May, an increase of almost 40% in the price of cereals was recorded compared to last year ", Di Maio explained, underlining how" all this only aggravates a worrying start-up scenario. "In 2021, 193 million people in 53 countries were in conditions of serious food insecurity.
Such a high number had never been registered before ", concluded the Foreign Minister. (ANSA).