This feature article examines the current and likely impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on international food markets Such markets are not insulated from changes in the wider economy, therefore emphasis is placed on how broader economic shocks have, and can be, transmitted to food markets, notwithstanding the direct transmittable effects of the novel virus to the agricultural sector The analysis presented in this article suggests that a COVID-19-induced global food crisis is not on the horizon Indeed, while the world food economy was ill-prepared for the shocks that characterized the global food crisis in 2007/08 and the recession that followed in 2009, this cannot be said of the situation in 2020 Global food production prospects are positive, stocks are high, international food prices are low, trade is broader-based with more importing and exporting countries, costs of bulk transportation are depressed, fertilizer and input prices remain stable, energy prices have collapsed and competition from biofuels has virtually seized
COVID-19: from a global health crisis to a global food crisis?