Rising Food Prices: Financial Risks and Implications to Emerging Markets

Food prices have been rising globally for some time now. While the Russia/Ukraine conflict has exacerbated food instability, many other factors have also come into play including the COVID-19 pandemic, increases in demand from growing populations, extreme weather events, among others. The war in Ukraine has shown us how the world has become increasingly reliant on a few crops grown in a few countries and how vulnerable food supply chains are to external shocks. The implications are significant for ESG as net food importers face food insecurity which could lead to rising hunger, undernourishment, inflation, and an increase in global inequality and poverty as food security issues tend to have disproportionate impacts on the poor. Nuvneet Dhillon, PGIM Fixed Income ESG Specialist, digs into the economic and investment implications of this critical topic with guests, Giancarlo Perasso, Lead economist for the CEEMA region, focusing on Africa and the former Soviet Union, and Todd Petersen, Emerging Markets Debt portfolio manager.

 

Recorded on May 18, 2022.