Page 48 - CMA Journal (Mar-Apr 2026)

Global Food Shocks This crisis in itself
provides a terrible
Food might be essential to human life, but when the whole wake up call to show
world is going through a global crisis, it is not something to that a faraway crisis
be taken as an absolute certainty. will come back to the
dining table at home.
The extreme weather that resulted in the 2022 oods
Politics is still the
devastated farmland and disconnected the markets of a
community. Food security, fundamentally, is about an biggest factor in food
security issues. When
adequate and sustained supply of safe and healthy food
con ict occurs, food
available to all persons, at all times and in all parts of the
production can be
world. Food security is the foundation on which all aspects of
a healthy life are built. But the reality is that it has become d i s r u p t e d ,
increasingly difficult to sustain, and no place exempli es the t r a n s p o r t a t i o n Humaira Kanwal, ACMA
issue more starkly than Pakistan. n e t w o r k s a n d Senior Accounts Manager at
storehouses can be Al Haram Taka, UAE
While COVID-19 restricted trade, making it harder for Punjab d a m a g e d , a n d
farmers to sell their produce, food prices reached
interstate trade is
unsustainable levels in cities such as Karachi and Lahore. hampered. One such issue that remains prominent today is
Extreme weather events, including the disastrous oods of the ongoing tensions within Iran and its implication for oil
2022, destroyed agricultural land and fragmented local
and petroleum supplies within the region. Also at play is the
markets. Increasing prices for fuel and transport, partly
world's reliance on energy markets. A rise in the price of oil, as
driven by regional geopolitical tensions affecting oil imports,
experienced due to con ict, often translates into a
has made essential commodities, even basic groceries, all
subsequent rise in the price of food because farming and
the more expensive. The combined effects of these shocks
agriculture are fuel dependent. Food production,
illustrate precisely how fragile many of our established
transportation, and processing all consume large amounts
systems are, and how easily local and international crises can
of fuel.
devolve into real life struggles.
The current situation in Iran has raised oil prices, thus raising
The issue of food security, while ever present in the mind of
the price of transport, electricity, and agriculture. This has the
governments, has in recent years assumed an even more
cumulative effect of raising food prices for everyday families.
urgent and overwhelming stature. At its heart, food security This has made everyday foods such as wheat, rice, and
relies upon four pillars, availability, access, utilization, and
cooking oil unaffordable. Although they are still available in
stability. This means that sufficient food must be available on
markets, households simply do not have the money to
a sustained basis, accessible to all, nutritious, and properly
purchase them, resulting in widespread food insecurity. As a
utilized. It becomes clear that the COVID-19 pandemic
result, in 2026 increased oil and gas prices have translated
revealed the fragility of every pillar at the same time,
signi cantly into in ationary pressures and food insecurity,
exposing vulnerabilities across all of them. Pakistani farmers
especially within developing nations.
of Punjab and Sindh could not sell their products when
markets closed. For wheat, rice, and vegetables, prices Import dependent and poorer countries are highly
skyrocketed for citizens of Karachi and Lahore. In Sri Lanka susceptible to these shocks and lack the ability to cope. For
countries like Pakistan, dependent on the import of oil, costs
there were constant scarcities of fuel and food. In Africa
of transportation and production have increased, thus
there were market failures resulting in over ten million
resulting in heightened in ation. In conjunction with global
people being unable to feed themselves, surviving only on
supply chain disruptions and a rise in food prices, this is
foods of minimal nutritional value.
ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, Mar-Apr 2026 46