WB Calls Upon G20 to Refrain From Food Exports Restrictions

A senior World Bank (WB) official called for G20 to react as she confirmed that the poorest countries in the world face dangers in terms of food security in addition to malnutrition due to the Coronavirus pandemic, a decline in foreign exchange earnings, export restrictions and the collapse of supply chains.

In comments over the Internet to the meeting of agriculture ministers of the Group of Twenty countries (G20), Mari Pangestu, executive director of the World Bank for Development Policy, called upon G20 to refrain from imposing export restrictions and avoiding the creation of unnecessary barriers to import and the accumulation of excess stocks.

She added that global production and global grain stocks are near their highest levels ever "which makes the restrictions unnecessary."

"Let's not repeat what happened in 2008 when restrictions on trade exaggerated hikes in global food prices and further 130-135 million people fell below the poverty line, especially in the most vulnerable countries," she said.

Pangestu urged the countries of the group to ensure the flow of supply chains and to prioritize the supply of food, transport and storage.

In return, the ministers of agriculture in the G20 countries pledged during a video conference to provide "adequate, safe and nutritious food at reasonable prices" in the face of the Corona pandemic.

"We will work together to help ensure that adequate, safe and nutritious food continues to be available in a timely, safe and orderly manner for all people, including the poorest, most vulnerable and displaced," said a statement to the ministers issued at the end of the meeting.

In addition to the pandemic, which sparked the deepest recession since the 1930s, the worst locust outbreaks in decades eradicated millions of hectares of crops while spreading across Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

According to World Bank data, locust swarms have invaded 23 countries, destroyed large areas of food crops in the Horn of Africa when more than 24 million people already experience "food insecurity" and where 12 million people are displaced within their own countries.

Pangestu noted that the World Bank is making available 160 billion dollars to respond to the pandemic over the next 15 months.