SOFI 2022 in Russia: the world supports consumers

On 7 July, the TASS press centre held the Russian premiere of the UN flagship report entitled “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022” (SOFI-2022), which had been presented the day before at the UN Headquarters in New York as part of the High-level political forum on sustainable development. 

This annual publication is the most authoritative international independent assessment prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, this publication does not give us optimistic forecasts,” said Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation. “While the global response to eradicate hunger and malnutrition does not produce the expected results and the world is not moving towards its goal of eliminating famine, but is moving away from it, the number of people suffering from starvation in the world reached 828 million in 2021. This is 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more than before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

“In addition to the rise in the number of those chronically hungry, some 2.3 billion people, more than a quarter of the world’s population, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2021.”  

The impact of the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and drought in some of the world’s leading food-producing countries are all exacerbating the global food situation. “The manifestation of the main causes of food insecurity, malnutrition, namely armed conflicts, climate extremes and economic shocks against the backdrop of growing inequalities, is an established fact,” said the head of the FAO Moscow Office. 

Regarding the specific SDG indicators for which FAO is jointly responsible with WHO under the 2030 Agenda, Oleg Kobiakov highlighted the following: “In terms of nutrition, improvements have only been made in the reduction of stunting in children and in exclusive breastfeeding. As for other indicators, namely obesity in adults, anemia, especially in women, the situation is developing in an undesirable direction. Moreover, in 2020, almost 3.1 billion people could not afford healthy diets, which was 112 million more than in 2019 – this was the result of rising food prices in all countries around the world. 

“What is the geography of world hunger today? Asia has the largest number of hungry people with 425 million, followed by Africa with 278 and Latin America with 56 million. These figures are equivalent to 29.8 percent of the population in the respective regions. The situation is the most acute in Africa, where every fifth inhabitant of this continent is chronically hungry.” 

“FAO and its UN partners formulate recommendations. From the analysis of our fellow economists, it follows that in the foreseeable future the world will not be able to allocate large resources to finance the agrifood sector. At the same time, if one looks at the scale of support that is currently being provided to the agrifood sector around the world, one will see that it is very and very significant.” 

“The key to solving problems lies in the redistribution of support funds, in targeted financing of those areas that will give the most stable and prompt effect. In particular, the general vector will be aimed at shifting support from producers to supporting consumers. In this context, the social function of the state is going to be implemented as well.” 

“The report is going to serve as a guide for the practical actions of specific states and international organizations that work on behalf of and in the interests of FAO member countries. We have eight years until 2030 to make a stop, to assess the situation of our planet, and finally realize that our work on the 2030 Agenda is not enough. Meanwhile, the task of eliminating hunger and ensuring nutrition is the very main link, by pulling which we can pull off the entire SDG chain.” 

“Among the recommendations developed by FAO to overcome the current food crisis, there is a recommendation to abandon restrictive measures in trade, as well as fully exempt all food supplies, not only humanitarian ones, from sanctions,” Oleg Kobiakov said in conclusion. 

Melita Vujnović, WHO Representative in Russia, noted that “45 million children in the world are currently suffering from weight loss due to hunger, and 149 million children under five years of age are stunted due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients.” 

“WHO focuses on a healthy diet that starts from the beginning of a woman’s pregnancy and continues throughout the breastfeeding phase. This is included in the recommendations of WHO. This point is also shown in the Sustainable Development Goals where it is written that, by 2030, 50 percent of children around the world, until the age of six months, must be exclusively breastfed. At the moment, these indicators account for 44 percent, which, of course, is not sufficient. We are not only talking about exclusive breastfeeding up to six months, but also about the possibility to do so up to two years.” 

“WHO together with its partners, especially FAO and WFP, is responding to acute hunger that is growing in seven countries in the African region, and also threatens other countries,” Melita Vujnović said. 

Viacheslav Fetisov, First Deputy Chair of State Duma Committee for Ecology, Natural Resources and Environment Protection, Chairman of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Nature, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador in Russia, explained how the current geopolitical situation is affecting consumers around the world. Rising prices not only for food, but also for energy and fertilizers can threaten not only current, but also future harvests around the world. Moreover, more frequent and increasingly severe climate extremes disrupt supply chains, particularly impacting low-income countries. 

Viacheslav Fetisov noted that there is a threat to the next year’s sowing season. It is already necessary to find systematic ways to overcome it, since the situation may lead to an increase in the number of people suffering from malnutrition, not only in 2022, but also in the subsequent period. 

The UNEP Ambassador particularly highlighted that clean water, which has become one of the most precious natural resources, plays an invaluable role in people’s healthy nutrition, and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation ranks alongside with SDG 2 on zero hunger and SDG 3 on health and well-being. 

“Product safety and quality control is a state priority,” Vyacheslav Smolenskiy, Deputy head of Rospotrebnadzor, said. “Since 2019, we have been implementing a project for healthy nutrition in Russia within the “Demografiya” [Demography] national project. Over this period, we have significantly increased our capabilities for laboratory control of safety and quality of food offered to Russians. We have been monitoring food products in retail chains, the state of nutrition of different population groups and people’s access to food that contributes to eliminating macro- and micronutrient deficiency.”  

The speaker noted that this work has managed to increase coverage from 5 to 49 regions, and by the end of this year, monitoring will be carried out in 65 regions of the country. “At the end of 2021, almost two million food studies were conducted, of which more than 215 000 studies of product quality indicators were carried out within the project.” 

“Our task is not just to feed our people, but to feed them well and fully,” Vyacheslav Smolenskiy said in conclusion. 

Eduard Zernin, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Rusgrain Union (The Russian Union of Grain Exporters), noted that “Russia has conquered a leading position in the world grain market in a fair competition.” 

Eduard Zernin pointed out the problem of financial transactions. “Clearly, grain trading is a business, and the financial component is extremely important.” Moreover, this “allows replenishing working capital. I am very glad that we have been heard – we have repeatedly appealed, including to FAO, to the leadership of those bodies that impose sanctions and issue a general license. Today, any attempts to limit grain supplies from Russia, first of all, adversely affect our consumers, our clients from many countries that need food and cannot, for natural reasons, produce it themselves.” 

“The Russian market is not only one of the most promising and largest ones, also Russia is a reliable food supplier for a number of states around the world,” Eduard Zernin concluded.

* * *

The press-conference participants also answered questions from journalists. The complete text of the report (in English) is available at the following link: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 (fao.org), summary in Russian – through the following link: Краткий обзор. Положение дел в области продовольственной безопасности и питания в мире 2022 (fao.org).