Global food supply is under threat
International trade in food relies on a small number of key ports, straits and roads, which face increasing risks of disruption due to climate change, a report said on Tuesday.
Disruptions caused by weather, conflict or politics at one of those so-called “chokepoints” could limit food supplies and push up prices, the study by British think-tank Chatham House warned.
“The risks are growing as we all trade more with each other and as climate change takes hold,” Laura Wellesley, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.
The report identifies 14 chokepoints that are critical to global food security. It warns that incidents or delays at these chokepoints could disrupt supply, and push up food prices. Over the past 15 years, all but one of the 14 critical chokepoints has been subject to closure or to restrictions on traffic.
Almost 25 per cent of all food eaten around the world is traded on international markets, the report said. The amount of maize, wheat, rice and soybean moved across the world each year is enough to feed some 2.8 million people and more than half of it passes through at least one of 14 inland routes, ports, and straits, like the Panama and Suez canals.
About 20 per cent of global wheat exports, for example, transit via the Turkish Straits, while more than 25 per cent of soybean exports is shipped across the Straits of Malacca. But infrastructure at these junctures is often old and ill-suited to cope with natural disasters, which are expected to increase in frequency as the planet warms, said Wellesley.
The Panama canal has been hampered by drought, while the Suez canal has been closed by sandstorms and threatened by attempted terrorist bomb attacks. Roads in Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of soybean, for instance, were exposed to the risk of flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains.
The only chokepoint that has not recently been disrupted is the Straits of Gibraltar, connecting the Mediterranean with the Atlantic.