The US is urging G20 members and the IMF and World Bank to take co-ordinated action to ensure fertiliser access amid disruptions in food trade supply chains caused by the war in the Middle East, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent views fertiliser and agriculture supply chains as of essential importance, and is encouraging collaboration among G20 members and the global financial institutions, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
The IMF and others have warned that supply chain disruptions caused by the war, especially to fertiliser at the start of the critical growing season, threaten to push 45-million more people into a position of food insecurity.
Several sub-Saharan African nations already are seeking help, and the IMF expects at least a dozen countries to negotiate new lending programmes with the global crisis lender as a result of the war, which has also sent energy prices sharply higher.
The US is the current chair of the Group of 20 major economies, which includes Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, as well as the AU and EU.
The US views fertiliser as intrinsic to food security, and views the initiative as an action that G20 members “can immediately move on”, said one senior US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Details of the plan were not immediately available, but Washington is emphasising the need for agility and flexibility in policy responses and co-operation on fertiliser.
The UN has been pushing a separate initiative to create a humanitarian corridor through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure that fertiliser and other needed goods get through.
Reuters
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