Hummus has long since transcended its roots as a Middle Eastern staple to become a familiar treat around the world. Now the Russian invasion of Ukraine could have the creamy chickpea-based dish in short supply. Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s biggest chickpea exporters — Russia alone accounts for about a quarter of the world’s chickpea trade — and supply of the legume could drop by as much as 20 percent this year, the World Pulses Confederation estimates . Fighting in Ukraine as well as economic sanctions imposed against Russia are the biggest disruptors to the flow of chickpeas, according to the industry group, which represents growers and traders of pulses, dried pulses including peas, beans and lenses. Rising freight rates, driven in part by higher oil costs, are another problem. “Globally, chickpea prices may rise by 15 to 20 percent – the same value as supply falls,” said Navneet Singh Chhabra, an analyst at the trade association and director of Shree Sheela International, a global chickpea trader. Russia is one of the largest suppliers of chickpeas in the world, producing about 250,000 tons of chickpeas annually. However, financial sanctions limit the ways in which its growers can get chickpeas out of the country, Mr Chhabra said. The problem is different in Ukraine: much of its crop is usually planted in Kharkiv Oblast, where fighting has prevented planting. Ukraine usually produces between 30,000 and 50,000 tonnes of chickpeas a year, but will produce a maximum of 5,000 tonnes this year, Mr Chhabra estimated. Russia is a major supplier of a smaller variety, called Kabuli chickpeas, which is particularly preferred for hummus, Mr Chhabra said. Russia’s biggest export markets are Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and India, and demand from those markets will send ripples around the world, he said. “The South Asian market will buy whatever chickpeas are cheaper, but in the Middle East and the US, there is a strong preference for the smaller, softer Kabuli chickpeas because that’s what makes the best, wrinkle-free hummus,” Mr said. the Chambra. “And Russia exports the best and largest quantity of Kabuli chickpeas in the world.”
title: “Latest Ukraine Russia War News Live Updates " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-12” author: “Adam Gross”
The first person Yana Muravinets tried to persuade to leave her home near the Ukrainian front line was a young woman who was five months pregnant. She did not want to give up her cows, her calf or her dog. He told Ms Muravinets that he had put energy and money into building her home near the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv and was afraid of losing it. “I said, ‘None of this will be necessary when you’re lying here dead,’” Ms Muravinec said. Since the first days of the war, Ms. Muravinets, a 27-year-old photographer and videographer from the region, has taken on a new volunteer job with the Red Cross: encouraging people to leave. In phone calls, door-to-door conversations, public speeches in village squares, sometimes even under fire, he tried to convince Ukrainians that leaving everything behind was the only sure way to survive. Getting people to give up everything they’ve built up in a lifetime is one of the many sad jobs the war has created and another challenge the authorities have faced. While the city of Mykolaiv managed to repel Russian attacks early in the war, the strikes devastated it and its region, bringing widespread death and destruction. Many residents have fled, but hundreds of thousands are still there, and the mayor’s office has urged people to leave. Ms Muravinec, who has spent thousands of hours in recent months trying to support the evacuation, said she was unprepared for the task. He started having panic attacks, he said, but felt he had to keep going. “The war is not over and people continue to put themselves in harm’s way,” he said in a Zoom call from Mykolaiv that had to be interrupted because of the shelling. “If I can get one person to leave, that’s already good.” Boris Shchabelkyi, a disabled evacuation coordinator who works alongside Ms Muravinets, described her as a tireless worker, kind to the people she needs to evacuate and “always in a good mood” with her colleagues. With the Red Cross, he has helped evacuate more than 2,500 people, he said, but many stayed or returned days after leaving. It took a month and a half to convince the young pregnant woman to flee and she only left after the windows of her home were knocked twice, Ms Muravinets said. “Especially when it’s safe, people think it’s OK and they’re living under some illusion,” he said. “They decide to leave only when rockets come to their house.” Damaged houses in Mykolaiv as a result of a deadly rocket in late June. Credit…Laetitia Vancon for The New York TimesMs. Muravinets tried to convince Ukrainians that leaving everything behind is often the only way to survive. Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times For two years before the war, Ms Muravinets worked for Lactalis, a French dairy company with a factory in the area, touring villages to check the quality of milk. Now that many country roads have become dangerous, she has reached remote villages, avoiding the fire by using shortcuts she learned in her previous job. But now, he has to convince the dairy farmers to give up their livelihood. “It’s their whole life,” he said. “They say, ‘How can I leave my cows?’ How can I leave my cows?” Before the war, he said a cow could cost as much as $1,000. Now, people take them to slaughterhouses to get meat for a fraction of that. Ms Muravinec said some farmers who agreed to evacuate left the pens open so the animals would not starve, and cows, bulls and ducks now roam the village streets looking for food and water. “The people who had money, opportunities, cars are already gone,” Ms. Muravinets said. But others, who had been living in warehouses for months, told her they were ready to die there because they refused to leave. He said he was staying for the same reason. “The people who are left are those who are ready to sacrifice their lives.” Valeriya Safronova contributed reporting from New York.
