Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry expressed Cairo’s readiness to cooperate with the international community in establishing a center for the supply and storage of grain in Egypt.
In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Saturday, Shoukry said that “Egypt, through its unique geographical location, expresses its readiness to cooperate with the international community in order to establish a center for the supply and storage of grain in Egypt in order to contribute to solving the food crisis for all.”
He added that the food security crisis is the result of many years of failure of the international community to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals.
“I refer to the unfortunate reality that in Africa one in five people is at risk of starvation, and the continent remains a food importer at a cost of US$43 billion,” Shoukry said.
The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, David Beasley on Friday warned of a food crisis that could cause chaos around the world.
He pointed out that there are 345 million people heading towards starvation in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, which sparked a war and a crisis in food, fertilizer and energy.
This year, Beasley said, the war has halted shipments of grain from Ukraine – a country that produces enough food to feed 400 million people – and sharply reduced shipments from Russia, the world’s second-largest exporter of fertilizer and a major food producer.
He added that inflation is also a serious problem, as it raises prices and hurts the poor who have no ability to adapt because “COVID-19 has destroyed them economically”.
