Russian-Ukraine conflict affected grain export, bread price rises

In the European Union, the price of bread rose by almost a fifth in August as grain export disrupt due to Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to media reports, global wheat prices have surged since February, after the conflict halted grain exports from the Black Sea for months.

It also restricted fertilizer shipments as Russian producers lost access to Baltic Sea ports, which they had used to ship ammonia, a key ingredient in nitrate fertilizer.

The European Union’s statistics office, Eurostat, data issued yesterday showed that the average price of bread in the EU was 18 percent higher in August 2022 than a year earlier. It is the highest rise since December 2017 when Eurostat began compiling the data.

The Eurostat said, in August 2021, the average price of bread rose three percent year-on-year. Hungary and Lithuania saw the highest annual changes in average bread price in August, with increases of 66 percent and 33 percent respectively.

The Eurostat said, that Euro zone inflation hit a record high of 9.1 per cent in August, driven by sharply higher energy and food prices.