Reuters • 25th July 2022

U.N. World Food Programme optimistic on Ukraine grain export deal

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was optimistic about a U.N.-brokered deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports but warned the agreement alone will not solve the global food crisis even if it is implemented effectively.

Reuters • 13th July 2022

Rising prices curb consumers' taste for chocolate

By Maytaal Angel and Jessica DiNapoli LONDON/NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - Consumers are cutting back on chocolate due to the cost of living crises in Europe and the United States, according to new data and comments from executives at the world's biggest chocolate companies.

Reuters • 6th July 2022

World hunger rising as U.N. agencies warn of "looming catastrophe"

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - World hunger levels rose again last year after soaring in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Ukraine war and climate change threatening starvation and mass migration on an "unprecedented scale" this year, according to U.N. agencies.

Reuters • 16th June 2022

REFILE-EXCLUSIVE-ICE exchange coffee heads to from Europe as weather bites supply - sources

By Maytaal Angel, Marcelo Teixeira LONDON/NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - Commodity traders are shipping arabica coffee from Europe-based ICE futures exchange warehouses to the United States, five trade sources told Reuters, reflecting the impact of erratic weather on global supply that could raise costs for the popular drink.

Reuters • 7th June 2022

UK seeks investigation into alleged Ukraine grain theft by Russia

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, June 7 (Reuters) - Britain's farming minister called on Tuesday for an immediate investigation into allegations that Russia had been stealing grain from Ukraine, following Moscow's invasion which has driven up world food prices to record levels.

Reuters • 7th June 2022

Famine risk rises in Somalia as rains fail, food prices soar, U.N. says

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Nearly a quarter of a million people are facing starvation in Somalia as a drought worsens and global food prices hover near record highs, United Nations agencies said on Monday.

Reuters • 31st May 2022

Ukraine's giant seed bank at risk of being lost as war rages

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) - In underground vaults near Ukraine's battlefields, the genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops is in danger of being permanently destroyed.

Reuters • 4th May 2022

Ukraine war set to worsen severe hunger worldwide - U.N. report

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - Conflict, extreme weather and economic shocks increased the number of people facing a severe lack of food by a fifth to 193 million last year and the Ukraine war means the outlook will worsen without urgent action, a U.N. agency said on Tuesday.

Reuters • 1st April 2022

Russia faces rising sugar prices, shortages as traders divert shipments

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Commodity traders have started diverting sugar shipments away from Russia, according to industry sources and shipping data, a move set to further boost soaring domestic prices and ratchet up pressure on the Russian government to cool food inflation.

Reuters • 8th February 2022

EXCLUSIVE Traders ship Asian coffee to ICE exchange as shipping logjam eases

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Traders are planning to deliver thousands of tonnes of robusta coffee from Asia to the ICE futures exchange in Europe for the first time in more than three years - a move likely to take the heat out of benchmark coffee prices that are near 10-year peaks.

Reuters • 27th January 2022

Nestle to give cocoa farmers cash to keep children in school

By Silke Koltrowitz and Maytaal Angel ZURICH/LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Nestle (NESN.S)said on Thursday it will start paying cocoa farmers cash if they send their children to school rather than out to tend crops as part of a push to purchase all of its cocoa through a fully traceable, directly sourced supply chain by 2025.

Reuters • 8th December 2021

Coffee crisis in Central America fuels record exodus north

By Maytaal Angel, Gustavo Palencia and Sofia Menchu EL LAUREL, Honduras/LA LAGUNETA, Guatemala, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The four sons of María Bonilla and Esteban Funes all embarked on the treacherous journey north, one of them aged 10, preferring the life of an unauthorized migrant in America to a coffee farmer in Central America. "If I didn't have my mom, I would also go to the U.S. It's better there. Here, no one is solvent," said 40-year-old Bonilla, who's still trying to beat the odds and turn a profit at her family farm in El Laurel, northeast Honduras.

Reuters • 18th November 2021

In Ivory Coast, a battle to save cocoa-ravaged forests

By Joe Bavier, Maytaal Angel and Ange Aboa DJIGBADJI, Ivory Coast, Nov 18 (Reuters) - This cocoa-growing settlement was all but destroyed last year by Ivorian forest agents, leaving farmers to rake through their beans amid broken concrete and other remnants. "They set the whole village on fire," said Alexis Kouassi Akpoue, describing the day in January 2020 when the agents raided the settlement in Rapides Grah, a protected forest, where he had illicitly planted cocoa with thousands of other farmers. "The next morning at 5 o'clock they sent in the bulldozers."

Reuters • 17th November 2021

EU proposes law preventing import of goods linked to deforestation

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed a law on Wednesday aimed at preventing the import of commodities linked to deforestation by requiring companies to prove their global supply chains are not contributing to the destruction of forests.

Reuters • 4th November 2021

EXCLUSIVE Major commodities traders sue Brazil coffee farmers for defaults

By Marcelo Teixeira and Maytaal Angel NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Commodities traders including Louis Dreyfus, Olam and Volcafe are pursuing legal action against hundreds of Brazilian coffee farmers whose failure to deliver on pre-agreed sales has left the merchants exposed to losses, according to sources and documents seen by Reuters.

Reuters • 11th October 2021

EXCLUSIVE Major coffee buyers face losses as Colombia farmers fail to deliver

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Coffee farmers in Colombia, the world's No. 2 arabica producer, have failed to deliver up to 1 million bags of beans this year or nearly 10% of the country's crop, leaving exporters, traders and roasters facing steep losses, industry sources told Reuters.

Reuters • 16th August 2021

If your coffee's going downhill, blame climate change

By Maytaal Angel and Marcelo Teixeira, Roberto Samora LONDON/NEW YORK/SAO PAULO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Coffee leader Brazil is turning to stronger and more bitter robusta beans, which are hardier in the heat than the delicate arabica, in a sign of how climate change is affecting global markets - and shaping our favourite flavours.

Reuters • 12th July 2021

World hunger, malnutrition soared last year mostly due to COVID-19 - U.N. agencies

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - World hunger and malnutrition levels worsened dramatically last year, with most of the increase likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a multi-agency United Nations (U.N.) report published on Monday.

Reuters • 22nd June 2021

U.N. agency says 41 million on verge of famine

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - Some 41 million people worldwide are at at imminent risk of famine, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday, saying soaring prices for basic foods were compounding existing pressures on food security.

Reuters • 5th May 2021

Nearly 20 million more people hit by food crises last year

By Maytaal Angel LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Nearly 20 million more people faced food crises last year amid armed conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and weather extremes, and the outlook for this year is again grim, according to a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises.