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All news / The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Western corporations of rising food prices

  • 29 May 2023, 09:31

Western countries (the US and the EU) are silent about the fact that their largest agricultural corporations benefit from rising food and fertilizer prices. According to the National Agrarian Agency, Sergey Vershinin, deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, spoke about this at the XI international meeting of high representatives on security issues.

According to him, we are talking about the so-called "big four" agricultural holdings - these are three American (Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill) and one Dutch (Louis Dreyfus). They account for up to 90 percent of the world's agricultural trade. The deputy minister said that last year they received a record profit from sales due to speculation on statements about a possible shortage of food and food inflation in the world.

In his opinion, the West receives raw agricultural products from Ukraine for next to nothing for processing and delivery to other developed countries in the form of finished goods with high added value. Developing countries, according to the diplomat, are used by the United States and the European Union as a source of cheap raw materials to improve their own profitability.

Vershinin also recalled that the West unfoundedly accuses Russia of the current crisis situation in the global food market. At the same time, the Western countries themselves, according to him, reject the role in this of the sanctions they create, which "exacerbated the imbalance of world markets." Recall that the United States, the European Union and their allies (including Ukraine) have indeed repeatedly reproached Russia for trying to withdraw from the “grain deal”. Although usually the reason for such a step was valid. For example, at the end of October 2022, Russia made such a decision because of the terrorist attack by the Ukrainian military in Sevastopol, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out a drone attack on Russian military and civilian vessels participating in the protection of the humanitarian corridor. Also, sometimes Moscow announces plans to withdraw from the agreement due to the fact that its terms are not respected.