Countries that cut back on food trade to protect against domestic price fluctuations can disrupt the global food system — a sign of the increasing connectedness of the market.
Michael Puma of Columbia University in New York and his team used data on wheat and rice agriculture from 1992 to 2009 to analyse how price shocks resulting from large-scale weather anomalies, crop diseases or war affect worldwide trade in staple foods. They found that the global market has become more vulnerable to temporary trade restrictions as international connections have doubled and the volume of traded goods has increased since 1992.
Export restrictions lead to higher global food prices, which can lead to more trade restrictions. Poor countries suffer most from the drop in food imports, the authors note.
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Trade disruptions hit the poor. Nature 518, 276–277 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/518276d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/518276d
