I think over the last two years we have been made more aware how fragile many countries are relying on having to import basic necessities. The shipping/container crisis opened everyone's eyes to what we already new and that is the world relying on Chinese products. The latest events with Russia and Ukraine has shown these vulnerabilities yet gain.
Just looking at Africa and how much wheat they import is mind boggling considering how fertile the continent is. Only Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa grow any considerable amounts of wheat meaning every other country relies on imports. Wheat is used as part of the staple diet for mills to make bread and you take that away and you have chaos as bread is what the poor tend to rely on as a major part of their diet.
South Africa used to grow far more wheat than it does currently, but due to low profitability farmers planted other crops instead. I know in other countries farmers receive farming credits and kick backs for producing crops which are required and yet this is obviously not the case here.
The "sanctions" that are supposed to be happening are not as Europe relies too heavily on Russia for oil and gas. Sanctions are imposed to restrict a country or countries from doing business, but these are not really making any difference. We would all like to think they are but then that would be kidding ourselves.
There are loop holes which kindly aid the middleman who as an agent is able to import and store the fuel before selling it on. Trading houses are able to do this as the sanctions do not prevent anyone from buying oil for storage which then is resold. Buying directly and going to refinery is not allowed under sanctions but adding a storage step is which is absurd.
The West are helping Russia by bypassing their own rules which they have in place to protect themselves. Whether we like it or not exports will happen even if they go dark and are not seen as financial support. Russia will sell by lowering their export prices and it will be business as usual with more people/companies making bigger profits.
What happened to countries being self sufficient and providing for their own needs. Yes I understand that some climates wont allow for certain products to be grown, but don't have all your eggs in one basket and have many baskets just in case.
It seems the world has got lazy and into many bad habits relying on too few for their basic needs and when things go wrong they go wrong in a big way. The economies suffer along with the end user who ends up paying more for the same product.
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The fact that many African countries and hardly survive without importing all these basic things really does breaks my heart.
I am the exact opposite as most of the African countries are out for what they can get and should be doing way more for themselves. Considering the continent is rich in raw materials and has ideal weather to grow almost any crop there is no reason to be in this position. When you fly over Africa you realise how much land is untouched and could be put to use. Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa 30 years ago and now is the basket case of Africa through ignorance and neglect. People are starving yet they have the farm land and don't know how to use it as it was all about land grabbing and greed. Education is that important and until that happens Africa will always be looking for handouts and not helping themselves.
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I think import substitution is always a tricky thing. One always has to look at competitive advantage for the product and incentives to produce. Farmers won't farm if there's no incentive. Since there's an obvious demand for wheat in Africa do, perhaps the private and public sectors could work out better ways to ramp up production and make it worthwhile for farmers