Food security in BRICS countries amid global economic instability

The BRICS countries play a pivotal role in the global food system, contributing to worldwide food security and agricultural sustainability. However, the current geopolitical landscape—which affects global trade, including price volatility and pricing dynamics—threatens food security at multiple levels: within individual BRICS nations, across the entire bloc, and globally.

The modern concept of food security encompasses not just the humanitarian dimension—which ensures food access for the population—but also systemic, temporal, and geopolitical factors. This understanding implies that food security cannot be achieved if access to food fluctuates due to geopolitical conflicts and crises. In this context, the stability and resilience of food systems take on particular importance. While stability refers to maintaining continuous physical and economic access to food and avoiding significant fluctuations due to internal and external factors, resilience reflects the ability of food systems to adapt to crisis situations and minimize their impact while preserving operational efficiency.

The combined effect of these risks threatens food security—even when food availability is sufficient.

A key negative consequence of economic instability—and a major threat to food security—is the volatility of food prices. This issue is especially critical for lowincome countries, where people are disproportionately affected by hunger and undernourishment, largely due to their greater exposure to food price inflation.

For example, among the programs supporting vulnerable groups, including rural farmers, India operates one of the world's largest direct cash transfer programs for farming families (PM-KISAN).

In addition, India's experience in digitalizing agriculture and trade is notable: the National Agriculture Market digital platform (e-NAM) integrates agricultural markets into a unified digital system, enabling electronic trading with transparent pricing and real-time price information.

Brazil operates a major national program, the Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB), which is designed in part to build food reserves. These reserves help stabilize the domestic market and support emergency response efforts.

In China, the National High-Standard Farmland Construction Program is being implemented to ensure long-term resilience of the country’s food security. The program involves investing in modern agricultural technologies and advancing the digitalization of farming. 

Among China’s digital solutions, one of the world’s largest rural e-commerce ecosystems stands out - delivered through the Taobao Villages and Pinduoduo platforms.

Russia, India, Brazil, and China are global leaders in producing key agricultural commodities—both grains and livestock products (meat, milk, and eggs). Russia further contributes as one of the largest players in the energy sector and as a global leader in the fertilizer market.

From a logistics perspective, the UAE and Saudi Arabia play pivotal roles. Notably, the UAE holds a special position in establishing the BRICS Grain Exchange: the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre has been preliminarily selected as the platform’s operator.

However, the recent escalation of the crisis in the Middle East—including the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz—has highlighted the need to strengthen these transport and logistics corridors. While disruptions to supply chains are not new, such crises still pose substantial risks to food availability—driven by logistics breakdowns, rising fertilizer prices, and heightened food inflation. Yet, thanks in part to their already well-established cooperation, the BRICS countries were able to respond swiftly to the worsening situation by setting up alternative logistics routes and integrating the Iranian and Russian payment systems. 

Developing alternative transport and logistics routes remains a top priority for building resilient and stable food systems, as it helps reduce economies’ vulnerability to global shocks. Overall, in recent years the BRICS grouping has been shifting toward greater intra-bloc trade, accompanied by the development of new transport and logistics corridors. As part of their adaptation strategies to sanctions, the key agricultural-producing countries have diversified their trading partners and routes to reduce dependence on European markets. This applies most notably to Russia and China, but also to Brazil, whose current foreign trade policy focuses on reorienting toward other BRICS member states and further strengthening South-South cooperation mechanisms.

Beyond sharing expertise and information and conducting joint research through the BRICS Agricultural Research Platform (BARP) and the BRICS Basic Agricultural Information System (BAIES), cooperation is advanced through the following areas:

Establishing a BRICS food import mechanism to provide emergency financial assistance to member countries—primarily low- and lower-middle-income nations—that are especially vulnerable to the risks and adverse effects of sharp increases in food and input prices (fertilizers, energy, and other production resources). The New Development Bank is expected to serve as a key implementing body for this initiative. The Bank's primary mission is to finance infrastructure projects for sustainable development in BRICS countries and other developing nations.

Establishing the BRICS Grain Exchange, which has the potential to create the structural conditions for an independent price architecture and help reduce volatility amid sanctions and trade restrictions.
The 16th BRICS Agriculture Ministers’ Declaration, adopted on June 13, 2026, notes that the countries recognize the importance of further developing the initiative and express their readiness to jointly discuss and elaborate the Exchange’s operating mechanisms. Currently, Russia is working on developing and approving a work plan for the establishment of the BRICS Exchange.

Establishing a BRICS cross border payment system as part of building a unified financial infrastructure. This initiative aims to strengthen the resilience of mutual trade by reducing transaction costs and lessening dependence on external financial constraints in food markets.

Implementing trade facilitation principles for agricultural products, primarily through the adoption of digital technologies. This includes fully deploying electronic systems for sanitary and phytosanitary certification of agricultural goods, as well as leveraging digital platforms and artificial intelligence to track supply chains and forecast crop yields.

Thus, the BRICS grouping is gradually building cooperation mechanisms that help ensure the stability and resilience of member countries’ food systems during periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. This is achieved in part by reducing logistical and financial dependence on external partners in international trade.

However, it is important to recognize that on the global stage, the BRICS countries represent not only shared interests and priorities but also their own national ones—particularly when it comes to major agricultural powerhouses such as Russia, Brazil, China, and India. At the same time, significant differences persist within the bloc, both in levels of food security and in domestic agricultural policy approaches. This creates certain barriers to reaching consensus and implementing joint initiatives capable of producing a tangible impact. Discussions of initiatives such as the establishment of the BRICS Grain Exchange and the creation of unified settlement or insurance systems have been on the BRICS agenda for several years, yet have not yet resulted in fully functioning and effective mechanisms.

Alongside this, there is a need to build more effective coordination frameworks that can enhance the resilience of food systems and strengthen the bloc's ability to respond swiftly to crises arising amid escalating economic and geopolitical tensions.