Africa must be weaned off the need for Russian wheat, believes the African Development Bank (AfDB) who has announced plans to raise $1 billion to achieve this goal. This, as global wheat giant Russia continues its war on Ukraine.

Organic corn, wheat and soybean prices have moved higher in the past eight months, but whether those markets stay bullish in the next year hinges on the effects of drought conditions in Argentina, Canada and the United States, as well as developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine, according to an April 2022 organic commodity outlook from Mercaris, a data mining and trading platform for the organic industry.

One year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended agricultural commodity markets, food prices remain elevated even after retreating from their record highs in early 2022.

The negative impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ensuing high input costs and food inflation, continue to weigh on agricultural markets and consumers’ purchasing decisions.

Rice supply is expected to fall this year as farmers cut planting acreage across Asia because of fertiliser shortages and soaring fuel costs ​from the Iran war, with an emerging El Nino also set to squeeze output of the world's most consumed staple.

Wars rarely stay where they start.

The World Shipping Council (WSC) and the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) have reported a significant increase in vessel traffic rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope (CoGH) due to ongoing security concerns in the Red Sea, driven by Houthi attacks disrupting Suez Canal transits.

The Iran war is being covered mainly as an oil story. It is also a food story.