Weather Is Still the Wild Card in Global Food Supply
- Droughts looming across bread-basket regions of the world
- Crop-damaging weather and the virus threatening global supply
A farmers throws a bundles of cut wheat in the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on April 21.
Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/BloombergThe coronavirus pandemic is putting untold pressure on the supply chains that produce and transport the world’s food. Yet there’s one vital factor even harder to control than panic buying -- the weather.
A period of extreme weather that devastates harvests could force countries to deploy more protectionist food policies, creating a ripple effect through global trade. Concerns over access to wheat and other staples have already led nations including Kazakhstan and Russia to introduce export restrictions, sparking fears of a global food crisis not seen for a decade. So far the curbs have been limited to a handful of nations imposing short-term measures.