USA: According to a report in The Guardian, ten of the biggest hedge funds on the planet made close to $2 billion from the spike in food prices that followed the beginning of Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.

The British newspaper used a report from the nonprofit journalism organisation Lighthouse Reports and the investigative journalism division of Greenpeace called Unearthed.

Investment companies called hedge funds buy and sell commodities and stocks in order to make money.

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The study claims that analysts looked at Societe Generale's SG Trend Index returns for the first quarter of last year, both before and right after the conflict began on February 24 of that year. Soybeans and grains were the main topics of the analysis.

Calculations revealed that the hedge funds in question generated returns on these commodities of $1.9 billion, a sum significantly greater than the returns generated in the first quarter of any of the five years prior.

The level of hunger among the world's poorest people has increased as a result of hedge funds' role in the inflation of a price bubble, which increased pressure on food prices.

Financial speculators and hedge funds have bet on hunger and exacerbated it to make outrageous profits. The findings "cannot be right," said Olivier De Schutter, a UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

He charged that investors were purposefully "piling" into commodities and grains in order to "capitalise on uncertainty and rising food prices." 

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Analysts discovered that food businesses have benefited from the crisis as well. According to calculations, the 20 largest food companies in the world made $53.5 billion in unexpected profits over the course of the previous two years, first as a result of food prices rising during the Covid-19 pandemic and then as a result of last year's spike during the Ukraine crisis.

Greenpeace International campaigner Davi Martins said, "What we are witnessing is an enormous transfer of wealth to a few rich families that basically own the global food system, at a time when the majority of the world's population is struggling to make ends meet."

Following the start of the military operation, the cost of basic goods like wheat and fertiliser shot up, driven by soaring energy prices as the world grew concerned about the future of Russia's energy exports in the face of post-conflict sanctions.

Later in the year, especially after the Ukraine grain agreement was made in the middle of 2022, which permitted the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports despite the ongoing military action, they have somewhat subsided.

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Due to flaws in the agreement, which so far hasn't helped Russia with its own agricultural exports, the situation is still tumultuous. Due to the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, exporting its goods is difficult.

Because of this, the price of food has not yet reached pre-conflict levels in the entire world, prompting the International Monetary Fund to issue a warning last month that "many vulnerable countries still face heightened food insecurity."

Analysts urged international regulators to enact stricter regulations for market speculation, including improved food market transparency and limitations on the size of positions investors are permitted to take in this market.