UKRAINE – Danish multination brewer Carlsberg, Japan Tobacco, and a Coca-Cola bottler were among firms shutting factories in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. 

Denmark’s Carlsberg, which has a 31% share of Ukraine’s beer market, suspended production at all three of its breweries in the country. 

Switzerland-based bottler Coca-Cola HBC said it had triggered contingency plans which included shutting its bottling plant. 

Japan Tobacco shut a cigarette plant in Kremenchuck, central Ukraine and confirmed that the safety of all 900 workers at the facility has been confirmed. 

Earlier, Swiss food manufacturing group Nestle also announced halting all its Ukrainian operations to protect its staff from exposure to the ongoing war between Russian and Ukrainian forces.  

Ukraine war causes further food price hikes globally 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not just causing factory closures but also leading to soaring food prices in places far away from the epicenter of the war. 

In the US, The Chicago Board of Trade May wheat contract rose to its highest point since July 2012, with corn hitting an eight-month high and the May soybean contract soaring to its highest point since September 2012.  

The price rally is a result of the disruption of agricultural activities in both Ukraine and Russia, both of which are major food exporters.

Combined, the two countries produce 29% of global wheat, 19% of corn, and 80% of sunflower seed oil exports, according to Rabobank. 

 Russia is also one of the largest exporters of nitrogen products used to fertilize crops.  

Prices for urea in New Orleans, a commonly used nitrogen fertilizer, leaped 25% on news of the invasion, according to Bloomberg’s Green Markets. 

Rabobank says that if current sanctions remained until July when the next crop harvest begins, they would trigger demand rationing, which would force a doubling in wheat prices and a 30% increase in corn prices. 

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