Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue told Newsmax on Friday that a possible coming food shortage started with President Joe Biden's decision last year to stop the Keystone XL pipeline construction, combined with lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to supply chain disruptions around the world, and now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine could mean a food shortage is on the horizon.
''Certainly, closing down the Keystone pipeline, which more than covers anything [energy-related] that we would need from Russia, was a big mistake,'' Unanue said on ''The Chris Salcedo Show.'' ''Shutting down our economy with COVID was another big mistake. It put us into a tailspin with the supply chain and all that now does.''
Unanue's company, founded in 1936, is the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S., and has established itself as a leader in Latin American food and condiments.
It manufactures, packages and distributes over 2,500 high-quality food products from Spain, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, the company said on its website.
Unanue said that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is also destabilizing food markets throughout the world, causing prices to rise dramatically on glass as well as many agricultural items such as wheat and fertilizer.
''The other problem is in the Ukraine, where they produce a lot of fertilizer pottage,'' he said. ''They produce to plant. They have sand for making glass, glass [prices are] going up 42%. They produce a lot of corn and, of course, [are] the fifth-largest wheat supplier in the world.''
He said Russia also has 2.5 million acres of sunflowers planted, making it one of the largest sunflower oil producers in the world.
On Thursday, Biden warned that food shortages around the globe could be coming.
''We did talk about food shortages. And it's going to be real,'' The Hill reported Biden saying at a press conference in Brussels, where he is meeting with NATO leaders. ''The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it's imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.''
Biden said the United States and Europe would expand efforts to increase global food security by providing direct help where needed to prevent a crisis, The Hill reported.
U.S. officials said that the invasion may also pose a risk to the food supply in the Middle East and Africa.
''Russia's war of aggression threatens to disrupt the supply of critical agricultural commodities from the Black Sea region, which jeopardizes global food security, particularly for vulnerable populations in the Middle East and Africa,'' officials said earlier on Thursday, according to The Hill.
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