The armed conflict in Iran may lead to a significant increase in the number of people suffering from acute food shortages worldwide. According to UN estimates, by June of this year, the number of individuals facing hunger could rise by an additional 45 million.
This is reported by Finway
Consequences of the War for Global Food Markets
According to the World Food Programme, the prolongation of hostilities in Iran could have serious repercussions for international food supply chains. The organization emphasizes that disruptions in logistics and rising costs of food and energy threaten a sharp increase in the number of people on the brink of starvation. The situation became particularly critical after the onset of strikes by the US and Israel at the end of February, which effectively paralyzed part of the main routes for delivering humanitarian aid.
As a result, large volumes of food are not reaching the most vulnerable regions of the world, where the situation is already approaching catastrophic levels.
The Global Crisis Intensifies
During a briefing in Geneva, World Food Programme Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau emphasized that the combination of rising prices for food, energy, and logistics will lead to a new record high in the number of people on the brink of survival, exceeding 319 million individuals. He stated that even before the start of this war, the world was already in a state of deep food crisis, affecting an unprecedented number of people and accompanied by significant population depletion.
“Even before this war, we were experiencing the perfect storm, where hunger has never been as severe as it is now, in terms of the number of people affected and the depth of that hunger”
Skau also noted that the costs of transporting humanitarian aid have risen by nearly 20%, and many routes have to be urgently changed due to military actions. Additional strain is caused by the reduction in funding for WFP programs, as donors increasingly direct resources toward military needs, limiting support for humanitarian projects.