Russia and Ukraine crisis could hammer BRITAIN – millions hit with food supply warning

Russia and Ukraine account for 30 percent of the world total wheat exports, with a recent temporary two-month block on fertiliser chemicals sold by Russia seeing prices more than double. National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Minette Batters said warnings about UK food security must now be taken seriously, having being ignored for several years. She told The Independent: “I cannot understand why you would not treat food security as importantly as defence.

“The quickest way to create a serious issue [for a country] is if you have food shortages.”

UK farmers have seen the costs of global fertiliser surge, having already risen sharply following sanctions slapped onto Belaruskali.

The sanctions were imposed against Belarus’s biggest potash supplier last year by the US, UK and several other nations.

As a result of the soaring price of fertiliser, UK farmers have seen their profit margins hammered.

This is coming at an increasingly difficult time financially amid higher energy bills, increased labour costs and global supply-chain disruption.

Ms Batters said: “Last year I paid under £300 a tonne for nitrogen fertiliser; this year it’s over £700 a tonne.

“Russia and Ukraine know exactly how much the world is reliant on them for natural gas and fertiliser.”

War fears are skyrocketing between the two countries, with Russia massing tens of thousands of troops along its border with Ukraine.

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He told the Sunday Times: “It may be that he (Putin) just switches off his tanks and we all go home, but there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West.”

During a call with US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Saturday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she discussed her “acute concerns” that Russia “may launch further military aggression against Ukraine in coming days”.

She said: “We agree Russia will face massive consequences for any invasion, including severe sanctions.”

US President Joe Biden has also warned Mr Putin that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering”.

He warned during a call with his Russian counterpart on Saturday an attack would “diminish Russia’s standing”.

The White House said: “President Biden was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia.

“President Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing.”