Tom Espiner is a business reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe head of the World Trade Organization said that a food crisis could last for a long time without intervention.
The director general of the WTO said that African countries could be hit hard by shortages of wheat andfertilizer.
Grain is sitting in warehouses and Ukrainian ports can't be used to export it because of the war.
She said it was sad to see the price of food go up.
9% of the world's wheat market is supplied by Ukraine. 42% of the global sunflower oil market is accounted for by it.
Between 20 and 25 million tonnes of wheat are stuck in Ukranian because of a Russian blockade of Black Sea ports and Russian and Ukrainian mines along the coast.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala said wheat prices had gone up more than last year.
A "grain corridor" with a Turkish naval escort is being worked on by the UN.
Ukrainians need to clear mines from its Black Sea ports, according to Sergei Lavrov.
He said that they were ready to guarantee the safety of vessels leaving Ukrainian ports and heading for Turkish waters.
Ukraine has said it needs "effective security guarantees" before it can begin shipments.
Russia is accused of turningUkraine's breadbasket into a stealth missile with blockaded ports reducing the flow of exports to a trickle.
Some countries in the Middle East and Africa are at risk of shortages.
More than 40% of Libya's wheat comes from Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded wheat prices have gone up.
There is no easy fix. With an agreement for a corridor and the ability to secure enough ships, mines will have to be removed from the area to ensure safe passage.
There are warnings that tens of millions of people are at risk of famine.
It's just a taste of what could happen if an agreement isn't reached, with hunger and stretched budgets threatening to spill over into a devastating economic and social crisis.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala said that it was critical to see if we can get an answer to the problem.
The UN secretary general formed a task force to look at these issues.
She said that he spent a lot of time trying to work with Russia to see if an arrangement could be made.
This is going to be a dire situation worldwide if an agreement can't be reached.
35 countries in Africa import food from the Black Sea region.
She said that it was going to have a big impact on Africa. I hope we don't go into a food crisis in the next few years.
Grain can't be exported from the region at the moment, and there is a harvest coming up in July, so you can see that this will work its way through for the next year or two.
She said that labour shortages and supply chain problems make the problem worse.
She called on leaders to relax export restrictions, which can make food prices go up.
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