Iran war threatens next harvest, UN official says. Which countries are most at risk?

Conflict in the Middle East is threatening the coming planting season, a UN official has warned, as countries already reeling from fertiliser shortages and surging costs face shocks to food security.

The Strait of Hormuz, a major global chokepoint for fertilisers and other agricultural inputs as well as oil, has been under blockade since the start of joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.

Despite rising concerns over the impact of the conflict on global food production, China – supported by an advanced crop forecast system – recently said its domestic yield of grains and oilseed would increase this year.

Viorel Gutu, an assistant director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and a regional representative for Europe and Central Asia, said many countries were already “experiencing the shock”, including high input costs and low availability.

“The Strait of Hormuz is the key global route accounting for 20 to 45 per cent of the global traffic of essential agricultural inputs,” Gutu said in an interview with the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the Regional Ecological Summit in Kazakhstan last month.

  

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