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Russia wheat

Why East Africa is staring at higher wheat prices in 2025

Industry and Trade
  • Drought and bad weather in Russia have left the country staring at record-low production. This is bad news for key importers including countries in East Africa.
  • Russian wheat crop is expected to fall to an 11-year low this season.
  • Prices of wheat are expected to rise even higher globally.

The worsening numbers of Russia wheat production are hitting the headlines in East Africa as the region braces for higher consumer prices in 2025. A dip in Russia wheat output poses huge risk to East Africa, a market that heavily relies on imports to plug its own production gaps.

For farmers in Russia, bad weather, is projected to cut their output of the key ingredient that makes a variety of foods for millions in East Africa. As a result, economists project that prices for wheat in East Africa—a key importer of Russian wheat—will soar in the coming months.

In a report …

Wheat

Lessons from Ethiopia increasing its local wheat production  

Countries

Dr. Tiberio Chiari, former Manager of the Agricultural Value Chains Programme in Oromia- Ethiopia, within the Ethio-Italian Development Cooperation Framework, offers some of these efforts that the government has implemented in the Ethiopian wheat value chain that other African countries can learn from.

Launch and execution of suitable growth policies

The government keeps working harder to ensure the country’s current dependence on wheat importation (of about 1.7 million tonnes) is fully nullified. After years of field experimentation, in 2021, the Ethiopian government launched its new plan.

The objective of the plan is to cut down the import of wheat by producing during the cold season in pastoral dry areas currently available in the Awash, Omo and Shebelle river basins. The approach includes the cultivation of 400,000 hectares of land and the deployment of a large-scale commercial farming model to achieve a productivity of 4.4 tonnes/ha.…

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A Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves through financial markets. www.theexchange.africa

Russia-Ukraine: Spill-over effects take toll on West Africa

Business

Every African region has felt the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with West Africa also bearing the burden of a war miles away in Europe.

  • At a period when West Africa has been facing a severe food crisis since 2011, the Ukraine conflict has complicated matters further.
  • For most West African nations, the expenses of regulating rising prices are already too high.
  • The West African economic crisis and the Russia-Ukraine scenario highlight the perilous linkages between diplomatic sanctions, commerce, and food security.

Africa's post-Covid recovery hampered

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has hampered Africa's potential recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by raising food and fuel costs, interrupting the trade of services and goods, constricting fiscal space, limiting green transitions, and slowing the flow of development funding across the continent.

The crisis has jeopardized homes, communities, and nations across Africa. Before 2020, African countries were among the world's fastest-growing. The COVID-19 pandemic…

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Based on the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises, Nigeria ranks among the ten nations with the most significant number of people in food crisis. www.theexchange.africa

Nigeria: Fertilizer & gas sectors offer silver lining amidst food security concerns

Industry and Trade

Rising costs have remained a critical issue in the aftermath of the outbreak. Data from the World Bank/NBS Nigeria – COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey 2020 reveals that food prices rose rapidly following the pandemic. In March and April, basic food commodity prices increased by 17.2 per cent and 18.37 per cent, respectively. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the rise remains the highest in two years.

Recent findings based on comprehensive and long-term monthly food price data have revealed considerable price rises for all chosen food categories during the pandemic. Imported rice and wheat costs, for example, have climbed by 41% and 21%, respectively.

Wheat prices surged by 21% nationally, with considerable increases in price dispersion across markets when the epidemic began, and prices continue to grow.

Wheat is the main component of bread and other products such as noodles, pasta, semolina, and other Nigerian pantry staples. …