Irish Examiner View: Grain gang set on profiteering

The cargo ship Polarnet, arrives to Derince port in the Gulf of Izmit, Turkey, on August 8; the first of the ships to leave Ukraine under a deal to unblock grain supplies. Picture: Khalil Hamra/AP

It seems nearly incredible that at a time of soaring global hunger, the companies at the centre of the world’s grain trade are making record profits.

Figures released this week illustrate the world’s top four grain traders are seeing record, or near-record, profits and sales. Worryingly, these companies are forecasting demand will outstrip supply until at least 2024.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, food prices have surged 20% this year alone, and the World Food Programme is saying there are some 345m people now experiencing acute food shortages, as against 135m pre-Covid.

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) has already pointed to the injustice of global commodity giants making record profits at a time when global hunger is rising, and says the risk of profiteering is high.

It also maintains that this year’s price rises have happened despite what were thought to be abundant global grain supplies, but there is insufficient transparency from grain-trading companies to show how much grain they hold, and no way of forcing them to release stocks in a timely fashion.

Suggested means to try to control rampant grain prices include the introduction of windfall taxes, but trying to reach global agreement on such matters is highly unlikely.

It might be that price caps and tighter regulation of commodity trading will be necessary.

Of course the Russian invasion of Ukraine has played a big part in all this, as have the rising energy and fertiliser costs associated with the conflict, but there has now got to be some concerted universal effort to rectify the gain price issue, and stop profiteering — especially at a time when people are facing hard choices this coming winter, about heating their homes or feeding their families.

The pressure is now on to find solutions, or else — as has ever been the case — the world’s poor will be left to pick up the tab, or starve while trying to do so.