The heads of three global agencies, FAO,WHO &WTO warned on Wednesday of a potential worldwide food shortage if authorities fail to manage the ongoing coronavirus crisis properly.
Many governments around the world have put their populations on lockdown to slow the spread of the virus but that has resulted in severe slow-downs in international trade and food supply chains. Meanwhile panic buying by people going into isolation has already demonstrated the fragility of supply chains as supermarket shelves emptied in many countries.
“Uncertainty about food availability can spark a wave of export restrictions, creating a shortage on the global market,” said the joint text signed by Qu Dongyu, head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Roberto Azevedo, director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).