Miller Magazine Issue: 125 May 2020

23 NEWS MILLER / MAY 2020 ge-scale fiscal and monetary responses that govern- ments are crafting to respond to the expected blow to economic growth, represent an opportunity to tackle the longstanding issues in many middle and low-inco- me countries of inequality in accessing healthy food. Cash and in-kind transfers, new credit lines for key actors in food systems, safety nets, income support, distribution programmes such as food banks, and con- tinuing school-feeding delivery, should be directed to the most vulnerable and poorest people. Such targe- ting, the brief enjoins, will also maximize the effect that public resource outlays have on keeping demand more dynamic and safeguarding people from falling into ch- ronically weak dependencies that can last for years. There are encouraging examples of "stimulus for food" initiatives in low and middle-income countries - at least 106 countries have introduced or adapted social protection measures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a real-time review of social protection policy measures from the World Bank and the International Labour Organization - although the ability of African countries to deploy cash transfers has so far been weak. International cooperation and assistance is needed to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries, and this can be linked to recipient countries reallocating more of their own resources to achieve the desired ob- jectives and avoiding the highly adverse outcome of increased inequality in access to food. Targeting public stimulus measures towards initia- tives to bolster food access during the pandemic also offers an opportunity to build more lasting resilience into food systems to safeguard them against economic slowdowns and downturns in the future. The Russian Agriculture Ministry announced that it was suspending its export of most grains until July 1 st . The ministry said the Russian cutoff affected shipments of wheat, corn, rye, barley and meslin. Russia suspends grain exports until July 1 st Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, is sus- pending grain exports, including wheat, rye, barley and corn until July 1, the ministry of agriculture said. In early April, the government introduced export qu- otas for certain grains until the end of June but the- se were “fully exhausted” by 26th April, the ministry said in a statement. The Russian government approved seven-million-ton caps on exports of certain crops in April. The restri- ctions, intended to secure the domestic food market, apply to such essential crops as wheat and maslin, rye, barley and corn. Moscow said its quotas were introdu- ced to ensure the stability of the national market. “After exporting all grain declared under the quota, the export of wheat, meslin, rye, barley and corn to non-member states of the Eurasian Economic Union will be suspended until July 1, 2020,” the Russian ministry said. The Eurasian Economic Union groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. In the agri- cultural year 2018-2019, Russia exported more than 35 million tons of wheat and 43.3 million tons of all grains. Global bodies, including the World Trade Organiza- tion and the World Health Organisation have warned countries against imposing export restrictions that could interrupt the global food supply chain as the coronavi- rus pandemic causes massive economic upheaval. As Russia is the leading global exporter of wheat, the restrictions imposed by the country amid the coronavi- rus crisis caused concerns. However, analysts stress that there is no reason to worry until the end of May, when the actual shipments reach the introduced limits, and even after that the market is not expected to face any major shortages. Speaking to Miller Magazine, “It was expected that Russian stocks would be very low at the end of the 2019/20 campaign and that Russian exports in the last months of the campaign should have to decrease. This is exactly what is currently happening and which leads, in particular, to record exports from other countries of which the EU (34 Mt compared to only 32 Mt for com- mon wheat in 2018/19). Even if all global supplies have to be mobilized, there is no supply problem at present.” said Andrée Defois, President of Tallage and Managing Editor of Stratégie Grains.