MINSK, 22 June (BelTA) – Right now Belarus does not depend on the import of staple cereal crops and food. Aleksei Avdonin, an analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (BISR), made the statement at a meeting of BelTA's Expert Community project held on 22 June to discuss the world economic crisis and food shortage.
According to Aleksei Avdonin, the climate factor and the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in the virtual depletion of food in every country. “As of the beginning of 2022 the global food reserves were at their lowest since World War Two. These factors led to natural rapid increase in food prices,” he said. “We saw that the prices rose by over 20% in late 2021 and prices for futures added another 20% in January-February 2022. It is fundamentally wrong that Western media platforms are trying to put the blame for the food crisis on Russia due to various political actions or military actions with regard to Ukraine. We see totally different trends, different reasons. Belarus' population should thank the government since our agriculture has been developed actively for nearly 25 years.”
The BISR analyst added that at present Belarus does not depend on the import of staple cereal crops and food, this is why the country does not have to strongly respond to ongoing global inflation processes.
The effect and consequences of climate changes were most pronounced in the world in 2020 and 2021. According to data about droughts and floods, these years saw very strong cataclysms, which led to the destruction of fields among other things. These natural calamities happened in the basic arable farming regions – Eastern Africa, Europe, the Asian-Pacific region as well as Latin America.
