Agriculture Committee on June 13th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I call the meeting to order.

Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a nice weekend.

Welcome to meeting number 24 of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

I have a few reminders before we get started.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. Just so you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee. Screenshots or taking photos of your screen is not permitted.

For members participating in person, keep in mind the Board of Internal Economy's health protocol guidelines.

Colleagues, we are back. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, May 30, 2022, we are continuing in meeting number three our study of global food insecurity. We have another great panel lined up today. I see them on the screen joining us.

From Oxfam Canada, we have Lauren Ravon, who serves as the executive director. We also have Brittany Lambert, a women’s rights policy and advocacy specialist. Welcome to Oxfam.

From the Parliament of Ukraine, we have Dr. Lesia Zaburanna, who serves as a member of Parliament. It's very good to see you, madam.

From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we have Pierre Vauthier, who serves as the head of the Ukraine office.

For our witnesses, you know that we start with five-minute opening remarks. I'm going to start with Oxfam.

Ms. Ravon or Ms. Lambert, you have up to five minutes for opening remarks. I will turn the floor over to you.

[Lauren Ravon, Executive Director, Oxfam Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's my pleasure to be here before the committee today.

Today and every day, Oxfam is on the ground meeting people's urgent needs in hunger hot spots around the world.

Extreme inequality, climate change and unprecedented food and energy price inflation, all accelerated by the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, are creating the perfect storm for the world's poorest people. Over a quarter of a billion more people could be pushed into extreme poverty this year alone due to this convergence of crises. This would reverse decades of progress in the fight against poverty and put many lives at risk.

Low-income countries do not have the resources to respond to these multiple crises or to put in place adequate safety nets to support the most vulnerable. Their foreign reserves have already been depleted by their efforts to respond to the pandemic and also to service their debts. As inflation outstrips wage growth and as the cost of staples rises dramatically, millions of families are struggling to put food on the table. The places worst affected are countries that rely on food imports, low-income countries in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, as well as Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria.

Three countries in the Horn of Africa in particular—Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia—import 90% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine. The spike in food prices caused by the war in Ukraine comes at the exact same time these countries are facing unprecedented drought and ongoing conflict. As a result, many people are living in famine-like conditions, with one person dying of hunger every 48 seconds. The UN predicts that 350,000 Somali children could die by the end of the summer if we fail to act immediately.

Hunger affects women and girls disproportionately, as we know. They are the last to eat when food is scarce, the first to be pulled from school when their families can no longer afford tuition, and their unpaid care work in the home always increases in times of crisis. We will never achieve the promise of gender equality as long as women and girls continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition at a higher rate than men and boys do.

In the face of this global hunger crisis, there is actually much that Canada can do.

In the short term, donor governments like Canada must help avert catastrophe in the hardest hit countries by urgently increasing humanitarian assistance. While there has been an outpouring of solidarity for the people of Ukraine, the international community has grossly underfunded the humanitarian response to the hunger crisis. There remains a $13-billion funding gap for food security and nutrition responses globally. In the immediate, Canada should commit $600 million dollars at the upcoming G7 to get back on equal footing with its peers as a leading humanitarian funder.

Charities like Oxfam and other members of the Humanitarian Coalition are doing everything they can to raise funds from the Canadian public to be able to respond to the humanitarian emergency that is unfolding. The government could further encourage Canadians to donate generously by activating a matching fund, which we know is an effective way to increase donations.

In the medium term, Canada and other donors must start anticipating and responding to hunger crises earlier. The Ukraine crisis is not the only factor driving global hunger; it's merely the latest shock for countries that were already reeling from conflict, from the economic disruptions of the pandemic and from an escalating climate emergency. Famine is not something that happens suddenly or unexpectedly. It comes after months of ignored warnings and procrastination on the part of those who have the resources and the power to prevent it. Starvation is a political failure. Early warning systems do exist. We can save money and, most importantly, lives by acting earlier.

In the long term, governments like Canada must support the development of sustainable, resilient and local food systems. The current crisis underscores how important this is. Overdependence on food imports is dangerous for low-income countries and makes them highly vulnerable to market disruptions and price hikes. Canada must boost its budget for local, small-scale farming in low-income countries. These family farmers need better access to land, funding, infrastructure and markets. We need to support modes of production that are less dependent on imports of feed and fertilizer and more resilient to climate change.

I would like to close by emphasizing that the real drivers of hunger are poverty and inequality, not food scarcity. Conflicts and climate change are fuelling cyclical and predictable humanitarian shocks that only political will and global solidarity can prevent.

Thank you again for the opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Ms. Ravon.

You were right on time. We appreciate your thoughts and we'll certainly get to questions.

First, we're going to move to Dr. Lesia Zaburanna, who is a member of Parliament from Ukraine.

We have had your colleague, Yulia Klymenko, and also Minister Solskyi at our last meeting, so we look forward to hearing from you as well.

You have up to five minutes.

[Dr. Lesia Zaburanna, Member of Parliament, Parliament of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada)]

Thank you very much.

First of all, I would like to say that it's my honour and pleasure to address the committee of the House of Commons of Canada.

Let me start with a number of facts that will illustrate the role of Ukraine as a global food supplier.

Ukraine is a major exporter. We have always been among the countries leading in global food supply; we are the fifth country in wheat exports, fourth in maize, third in barley and the first in sunflower oil. Additionally, our state has been one of the top producers of nuts, rapeseeds, peas, millet, wheat flour, honey and other agricultural foods.

Last year Ukrainian grains fed more than 500 million people. This year they put a billion in danger. The unjustified aggression of Russia against Ukraine changed the order of things for good. Every day it causes irrevocable harm to the agriculture sector in Ukraine and undermines global food security.

The war has already negatively impacted the export potential of Ukraine. The seaports remain blocked by Russia while the water areas of the Black Sea remain mined by Russia as well. Currently, more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stacked in Ukraine forcing us to seek alternative ways to export our agricultural goods through the western borders.

Today, thanks to our partners, we have significant progress in exporting grains to the European Union compared to last month, but the numbers are still below the pre-war level. Most goods have been exported through water transport—river ports and ferry crossings—but the capacity of these facilities is still low for a stable global supply. Moreover, Ukraine may face additional problems soon due to the Russian attacks on the buildings to store harvest and the lack of the funds we would have gained by selling the goods abroad.

In addition, the Russian army blatantly steals Ukrainian wheat and grain in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and illegally transports the goods to Russia. The losses of farmers are estimated at more than half a million tonnes and more than $125 million. In the Luhansk region, Russian soldiers force Ukrainian farmers to carry out planting and then appropriate the harvest.

The head of the UN said recently that the Russian war against Ukraine has resulted in disruptions in food affecting 1.7 billion people worldwide. The consequences may be disastrous. According to the FAO's latest forecast, the war in Ukraine could increase chronic undernourishment by an additional 18.8 million people by 2023.

According to the Ukrainian government, the spring sowing area is 25% less than the previous year. The main crops that were sewn are maize, soy, sunflower, millet, buckwheat, oats and sugar beet. So today Ukrainian farmers think about how to export, not only the last year's harvest, but the upcoming as well.

Indeed, the 2022 planting season has been the most difficult in the history of independent Ukraine because of the logistical issues. Ukrainian farmers face an acute lack of fuel, fertilizers and plant protection products. The government has reported cases of international destruction or appropriation of agricultural machinery and equipment by the Russian army in the occupied regions of Ukraine.

Russia purposefully attacks grain silos, warehouses of fertilizers, farm enterprises and other infrastructure trying to aggravate the current humanitarian crisis. Two months ago Russian forces shelled bread plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions. In the liberated areas, the invaders mined agricultural fields.

Steadfast work of the agricultural sector is crucial for restoring Ukraine’s economy. For this reason, going through the 2022 planting was one of the most important tasks of the Ukrainian government and farmers. The season was relatively successful, thanks to the credits offered to the agricultural sector. More than 13,000 Ukrainian farmers received more than 38 billion hryvnias, which is about one billion euros of credit in total. Eighty per cent of that amount was attracted through portfolio guarantees.

Exports improved a bit compared with March of this year, yet no visible alternative to the previous volumes of Ukrainian global food export is seen today.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a significant negative impact—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Ms. Zaburanna, I apologize. I gave you a few extra seconds, and I should have been signalling to you.

We're at the time, but I know that my colleagues are going to have many questions, so maybe we'll leave it at that.

We'll go to Mr. Vauthier, and then we're going to go questions. As I mentioned, I'm sure my colleagues will have questions for you.

Mr. Vauthier, we go over to you.

[Pierre Vauthier, Head of Ukraine Office, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]

Thank you.

My name is Pierre Vauthier. I am the response coordinator on the ground in Ukraine for the Food and Agriculture Organization, the FAO, of the United Nations. I am in Kyiv right now, but I should note that we are active throughout Ukraine, including on the front lines. I also want to point out that our staff who were there before the war—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Vauthier, I apologize. We're having some technical issues on our end with translation, I'm being told by the clerk. I'm going to hand you over to the clerk.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Josée Harrison]

Mr. Vauthier, at the very bottom of your screen there is an unmute button, and then there's a little arrow pointing up. If you click on the arrow under select a microphone, you should be able to select your headset, please.

[Pierre Vauthier]

I've done it already. Can't you hear me?

[Lauren Ravon]

I can hear you, for what it's worth.

[Pierre Vauthier]

It's okay. I'm going to do it in English, if you don't mind, since the rest of the panel is anglophone. Let me just try to be brief so as not to lose too much time.

It was true—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sorry, Mr. Vauthier, our proceedings have to be able to be handled in English and French. We're going to try to keep troubleshooting to the extent that we can here. Just give us a second.

[Pierre Vauthier]

I can do it in French and English if you want.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Vauthier, for our proceedings we try to do both, but your testimony is very valued. You have up to five minutes and we've had a bit of a delay. I know you speak English and French. If you could try to bring your proceedings to two and a half minutes in English and then perhaps try to reiterate what you said in French.

That way we can get your testimony on the record. We'll have to troubleshoot what we do for questions and answers of course, but we'll certainly do our best. You're bilingual, so is that okay? That might be the best way.

[Pierre Vauthier]

Yes, I'll try to wrap up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I apologize for this. This is the nature of virtual proceedings.

We'll go over to you for perhaps half in English and half in French.

Thank you.

[Pierre Vauthier]

Thank you very much.

I will be very brief. I will just do part of the elements I wanted to introduce, but I think when we have the questions and answers, it will be more valuable for me to answer your questions.

Let me just say what has been said. I will talk just about the agricultural sector—one side—and food security of the population in Ukraine, as presented by Dr. Zaburanna.

At the moment, it's not just the crop sector that is affected. It is all the sectors of Ukraine, including the livestock, the fishery and the forestry. For the livestock, we know there was a lot of loss of milk production. There was a lot of loss of food for animals. At the moment as we speak, a number of people have lost their livestock or, due to the economical shrinkage, are going to reduce their livestock. They are consuming their livestock in particular in the area. We saw that and we witnessed that in the field.

The crisis we are currently facing involving livestock is due to the destruction of the distribution chain. Small and big ranchers alike are affected, and in some cases, farmers who are especially poor or have small operations are consuming their livestock, as I said.

For the fishery, as you know this is a land-locked country right now because of the war. Unfortunately, all of the Azov and the Black Seas are not proceeding. The fisheries are halted completely.

It's the same thing for forestry. We can mention forestry because it is something important that is shared between Ukraine and Canada.

Currently, 600,000 hectares of forest are no longer accessible or usable because of the war, contamination of the land and conflicts. That will give rise to environmental problems that will eventually have to be dealt with or, at least, examined.

Usually in Ukraine exports 45 million to 55 million tonnes of grain every year.

Dr. Zaburanna expressed that very clearly. At the moment every month pre-war, five million tonnes were exported via the sea to the world. The sea is blocked. At the moment, only 1.2 million tonnes, or one million on average per month are being exported. It's one-fifth of what has usually been exported. This is despite all of the effort and all the support of the neighbouring countries, but also the solutions that were managed by the government, the support from us, and also the pre-war sectors in country.

We think that we're reaching a limit. We cannot go back to the level of what we usually have with the sea exports. This is a big problem and it's causing a second problem. The harvest is going to come in a couple of months now. In fact, 20 million to 25 million tonnes of crop are still in storage right now. According to FAO's estimate, 14% has been destroyed or not available. Apparently, we're going to have an additional harvest, which will be between 55 million tonnes or maybe more.

We are facing a crisis right now. In a couple of months, the Ukraine will not be able to export and will not be able to store this capacity. I think Canada has a capacity to support the country in this aspect because it has valuable companies that able to talk and we are already starting to discuss. We need your support in order to solve this immediate problem. It will be a problem in 2022, but it's going to continue in 2023. Canada can support us greatly in this.

Ukraine is short roughly 20 million tonnes of storage capacity.

Let me jump very quickly to the IDPs now. I think the colleague from Oxfam was very clear about that, but let me address it from the point of view of Ukraine.

This is very concerning. Most of the IDPs are coming from the east or leaving the cities because they feel threatened by the military strikes, and are living in the countryside in the rural areas. At the moment, what is very concerning is that winter is coming and their livelihoods are lost. The wages are reducing. The employers are lost. At the moment, some of the emergency livelihoods that the people are using are crop production, a bit of vegetable production, a bit of small livestock production.

As a favour, we recommend strongly to switch as soon as possible from humanitarian assistance to emergency assistance, in order to strengthen the livelihoods of the population in the rural areas. This is very important. The winter is going to be hard. It's going to hit this population hard, and we absolutely need to be able, not just to provide them with cover and cash for consumption but also to give them the means to restart or at least to use as a temporary livelihood capacity in order that they can adapt.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Vauthier. We're at the time.

Colleagues, obviously, there are some technical issues with his sound. I think the testimony, if you choose to seek it, is important. He can answer in both English and French. With your permission, I would ask that we allow him to answer in English if he's asked a question in English, and to answer in French if he's asked a question in French.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Vauthier, if it's okay with you, if you're asked a question in English, we would ask you to respond in English, with a very quick summary in French, and vice versa if possible. I know that's not ideal, but that's the only way, and we want to make sure we get your testimony today.

We're going to start with questions.

Is that okay, Clerk?

[The Clerk]

No.

Sorry, I was trying to get your attention.

Unfortunately, if your mike is not connected properly, Mr. Vauthier, you cannot provide your own interpretation. It's very important that you connect your mike. We've been trying to reach you. A technician is trying to reach you on your cellphone, so if you could please....

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I think we have agreement.

Are you happy? Are you guys okay?

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Okay. I think until I'm told differently by the clerk, we'll proceed in the way that we talked about. I don't mean to overrule you, Ms. Harrison, but I do want to make sure the committee members get this testimony.

Mr. Vauthier, until you hear differently, please move that way.

I do want to get to questions, though, so Mr. Barlow, for six minutes, it's over to you.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I do have questions for Mr. Vauthier, who's on the phone, so can we just wait two seconds, or I can try to be agile here, but....