War in Ukraine and Its Impacts on Food Crises. A Review of Existing Analyses and Evidence

Situation overview

Global Network’s key messages based on the review of the latest information and analysis from partners on the impacts of the conflict on food crises.

Several Middle Eastern, northern and sub-Saharan African, as well as South Asian, countries are contingent on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine. In particular, in 2020, 38 countries and territories affected by food crises received 34 percent of the total Ukrainian exports of wheat and maize products and food crisis countries accounted for 73 percent of Russian exports of wheat (Global Network calculations based on FAOSTAT data available for 47 food crisis countries in 2020).

Among them, 27 countries and territories were affected by major food crises, and received around 13.4 million tonnes of the total exports of Russian and Ukrainian wheat and maize products.

Among the largest importers, Yemen, the Sudan, Nigeria and Ethiopia were also among the 10 largest food crises in terms of population in IPC/CH Phase 3 or above in 2020 – three of them were also on the list of Low Income and Food Deficit countries as established by FAO.