Africa’s food security under threat, Ramaphosa tells Putin

President Cyril Ramaphosa warned President Vladimir Putin on Saturday at the South Africa-Russia bilateral meeting in Saint Petersburg about the consequences of Russia’s war on Ukraine on food security.

He said the ongoing conflict negatively affected South Africa and other African countries.

“This conflict is directly affecting us. As far as food security is concerned, the prices of our fertilisers have gone up and the cost of living in many of our countries went up,” he said. “We believe it is in the interests of humanity that the people of Russia and Ukraine should be at peace and the conflict be settled peacefully.”

Ramaphosa said the African countries proposed the Black Sea initiative be implemented and opened to the world market.

“We are not here to plead for donations for the African continent. We recognise that out of the generosity of the Russian Federation, you have decided to donate grain to several countries on the continent that are facing challenges. We respect that, but our main import here is not so much focused on the issue of giving or donating grain to the African continent,” he said.

Africa ‘in support of peace’

Ramaphosa said all of Africa would like to see peace prevail.

“We are all in support of peace. We collectively as African countries have a very collaborative relationship with Russia, we cooperate in several areas and this gives us the ability to talk to you about peace because as much as we are having challenges on the African continent, as African countries, we stand on the side of peace. With the conflict in the Ukraine, we still advocate for peace,” he said.

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Chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, Wandile Sihlobo, said Russia’s decision not to renew the Black Sea grain deal which was essential to facilitating exports out of Ukraine, has contributed to a decline in global grain prices.

He said India has banned the exports of non-basmati rice and that broken rice would further push inflation.

“Both these events have been quite disruptive to the grain trade. India is an important global agriculture player, accounting for over a third of global rice exports. A ban on such export volume adds upside pressure on prices and limits the gains of the large global harvest by slowing prices to a consumer,” he added.

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Sihlobo said the decision to halt the grain deal would further contribute to the slowing of global agricultural commodities and food prices.

“Russia’s refusal to renew the deal presents an upside risk to global grain prices, which may undermine the gains we were all starting to enjoy from the slowing grain prices, specifically in the major importing regions.”

International grain prices

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said there was very little to gain in the relations between African leaders with Russia and Putin.

“The only possible gain is food, especially grains. It does affect the international price but it doesn’t mean there will be a shortage. It just means it will affect prices because they supplied a significant percentage of the world with grain,” he said.

Croucamp said Russia might have the technology, but the transfer of that technology to a continent with a dilapidated infrastructure and weak political leadership was almost impossible.

“I have no doubt this whole Africa-Russia thing was symbolic and has an effect on international grain prices,” he said.

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Economist Dawie Roodt said South Africa didn’t need Russia’s grains. “We make our own grain, we have enough of our grains and maize, we are not dependent on Ukrainian or Russian grain, we import ours from elsewhere, but it doesn’t mean it’s not important for us,” he said.

Roodt said it affected the grain prices which were determined by international prices. He said the agreement had just come to an end and wasn’t renewed because Putin said some of the Western countries did not adhere to the terms of the agreement.

“There are other countries dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grains and sunflower oil … like Morocco, Lebanon and Somalia will not get grains anymore which could lead to famine,” he said.

Roodt said the danger was Putin’s threat that any goods transported across the Black Sea to Ukraine would be considered a military target, which could blow up in everyone’s faces.