For Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, the invasion of Ukraine jeopardizes food security worldwide.
"
Around the Mediterranean, a lot of countries depend on wheat exports [Russian and Ukrainian]
", warned the Minister of Agriculture and Food.
“
We must avoid a food crisis in the next 12 to 18 months
”.
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The Minister of Agriculture, on the other hand, wants to reassure French consumers: France depends little on imports of Russian or Ukrainian wheat.
On the other hand, the unstable economic situation should push up prices, particularly with regard to feed for farmed animals.
“
The sector will be deeply affected
”, recognizes Julien Denormandie.
“
We are working on a method to protect the French as well as our partners
”.
A “
resilience plan
” intended to support French agriculture and food sovereignty should be presented in the coming days by the government.
Increase production
Julien Denormandie also calls for "
producing more at European level
", because "
we have the most fertile land in the world
", in order to counter the food crisis he predicts abroad.
A strengthening of French production was also mentioned by the president of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA): "
We are waiting for the European Union to authorize us to produce on the 4% of fallow land, frozen for environmental reasons.
This will only offset 15% of what Ukraine produced, but it will always be that
,” she told Le Parisien.
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Some countries are in fact more than 80% dependent on Russian wheat for their supplies: this is notably the case of Qatar, Rwanda, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan.
Russia also supplies 70% of the wheat imported by Turkey.
Ukraine provides 90% of the wheat consumed in Lebanon.
The countries located in Africa and around the Mediterranean are therefore watching the development of Russian and Ukrainian exports with great concern.