STOCKS | Black Sea Disruption Raises Global Food Supply Alarm

Black Sea shipping disruptions are worsening economic losses and threatening food security in vulnerable countries. According to Sina Finance, bond investors said food supply risks have not been fully priced in, while markets are paying more attention to energy and other commodity costs. Tue Vuong, chief executive of Golden Wheat in Ho Chi Minh City, said he had ordered four ships of wheat from fertile land around the Black Sea, equal to about one-fifth of his Vietnam flour mill's annual needs. He was later told the wheat could not be loaded after Russia's war against Ukraine escalated this summer. Suppliers offered Bulgarian wheat to replace two of the shipments, but Vuong said he spent the following weeks urgently searching for more sources because of the supply gap. He said the company was too exposed to the Black Sea crisis. Since July, grain supply has been severely disrupted as Russia and Ukraine stepped up attacks on each other's ports, hitting grain terminals, silos and ships. The escalation has also affected Russian energy infrastructure and pushed diesel prices to record highs. Egypt, the world's largest wheat buyer, has gone about a month without receiving grain from the Black Sea region. Wheat prices have risen to a three-year high, and there is little sign that the 2022 Turkey-brokered deal that opened a sea corridor for blocked Ukrainian grain will return.