G7 urges countries not to restrict food exports

The Group of Seven industrialised nations on Friday urged countries not to limit their food exports over the war in Ukraine after a meeting of their agriculture ministers to discuss the crisis.

"We call upon all countries to keep their food and agricultural markets open and to take precautions against unjustified restrictive export measures," the G7 agriculture ministers said in a joint statement.

The agriculture minister from Germany, which currently holds the presidency of the G7, said he was "very concerned" about the potential impact of countries shutting off exports.


"If everyone thinks of themselves in this situation, it will exacerbate the crisis and cause prices to shoot through the roof. These are avoidable costs that we do not need -- the crisis is already bad enough," Cem Ozdemir said.

Asked about potential sanctions on Russia's agricultural industry, Ozdemir said the discussion was "similar... to the one we are having in other areas, such as energy".

"I wish we were more independent, but we are not in this area, which is why I think the honest answer is that we first look at everything together and examine it, but we do not make isolated decisions that also have an impact on others," he said.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month has aggravated a global surge in prices of key commodities including food and oil.

Both Russia and Ukraine are major producers of foodstuffs, including sunflower oil and wheat, and the Middle East is particularly dependent on imports from the two countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that food prices will soar because of sanctions since Moscow is one of the world's top fertiliser producers.