‘Food chokepoint’ disruptions and implications for Asia

IN RECENT years, global food security has suffered from overlapping crises caused by conflicts, geopolitical tensions, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in severe food supply disruptions.

These disruptions have been accentuated by several “food chokepoints” such as in the Red Sea where Yemen-based Houthi fighters have attacked merchant ships and caused uncertainty in food shipments via the Suez Canal. The shipping traffic through the Panama Canal has decreased due to drought, which also hit river transportation systems such as the Mississippi River and Rhine River.

As the global food system is already increasingly dependent on the movement of food from a few major “breadbasket”-exporting regions to food-deficit areas around the world – often through these “food chokepoints” – the reliance on specific shipping routes intensifies the pressure on global food security. It also impacts agricultural product competitiveness, delivery schedules, as well as food availability and prices.