According to a report by UN organizations, the Russia-Ukraine war has had a negative influence on Zimbabwe’s agriculture industry. Potentially creating a food security catastrophe.
Zimbabwe needs over 800,000 tonnes of fertilizer yearly, and more than half of this is imported as nitrate-based goods. According to the research, the Ukraine situation also caused problems with food commodity supply. Which contributed to an increase in the price of the basic food basket of seven percent.
“The cost of vegetable oil varied the greatest, first rising from US$2.07/L in January to US$2.28 in April, and then skyrocketing to US$3.23 by July – a 56 percent rise. The price of maize flour climbed by an average of 14 percent.
Vegetable oil prices fluctuated in line with the pattern seen on the global market, which showed a sharp increase between March and July and have recently rebounded towards pre-conflict levels. This is true even though the country lifted import duties on cooking oil and other basic goods in May 2022 as part of efforts to reduce locally skyrocketing costs.