World Food Program Says Food Supply Chains In Ukraine Are 'falling Apart'

Reluctant drivers, bombed bridges in the midst of trouble
Organization of wholesale deliveries near cut-off cities
UN agency warns of ‘collateral starvation’ elsewhere

GENEVA, March 18 . A World Food Program (WFP) spokesman said on Friday that Ukraine’s food supply chains are crumbling, key infrastructure such as bridges and trains have been destroyed by bombs, and many grocery stores and warehouses are empty.

Jacob Kern, WFP’s emergency coordinator for Ukraine, expressed concern about the situation in “encircled cities” such as Mariupol, saying food and water supplies were running low and convoys could not enter.

“The food supply chain in the country is falling apart. The movement of goods has slowed down due to lack of security and unwilling drivers,” Kern said at a media briefing in Geneva via video link from Krakow, Poland.

“Inside Ukraine, our job is to replace broken commercial food supply chains,” he added, calling it a “giant task.”

The UN agency pre-positioned food, wheat flour and food rations outside the shelled cities. So far, the company has delivered 12,000 tons of food to the country, all of which came from Ukraine.

Wheat in a field near the city of Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Vincent Mundy//File Photo

Although Ukraine is a major producer of wheat and corn, WFP will import food there as part of a growing operation to help more than 3 million people.

It is currently preparing 8,000 tons of food for import from neighboring countries, Kern said.

WFP buys nearly half of its global wheat supply from Ukraine, and Kern said the crisis in Ukraine following the February 24 Russian invasion has led to a sharp rise in global food prices.

“Given record high global food prices, WFP is also concerned about the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on food security around the world, especially on pockets of hunger,” he said, warning of “collateral hunger” in other places such as Yemen and Lebanon. which are highly dependent on imports from Ukraine.

The agency will pay an additional $71 million per month for food this year due to inflation and the Ukrainian crisis, he said, adding that the amount would cover food supplies for 4 million people.

“Now we are changing suppliers, but this affects prices,” he said. “The further you buy it, the more expensive it becomes.”

Reporting by Emma Farge; Edited by Barbara Lewis and Frank Jack Daniel.

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