The Minister of Economy and Trade for Libya's interim Government of National Unity (GNU), Muhammad Al-Hawij, said that there are seven alternative countries to Ukraine, from which wheat can be imported, namely Russia, Germany, France, Canada, US, Argentina and Australia.

He pointed out that the current reserve stock of flour is sufficient for three months and there are imports of wheat coming, stressing that the government will "take measures against speculators in the market."

He continued, "The quantities of wheat consumed in Libya annually are 1.25 million tons of soft wheat, and 200,000 tons of hard wheat."

And last Sunday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhry, warned of the excessive dependence of several countries, including Libya, on Russian and Ukrainian wheat, expecting the war to cause “severe rates of hunger.”

Michael Fakhry said, in a statement published on the United Nations website, that the direct effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on food began to appear in Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and Iran. These countries buy more than 60% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, and countries such as Libya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen and Pakistan depend heavily on both countries for their wheat supplies.

Libya ranks among the top ten countries that purchased the most Ukrainian grain in 2020, and the main importing countries are, respectively: China, Egypt ($1.12 billion), Indonesia, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey ($473 million), Tunisia ($347 million), Bangladesh, South Korea and Libya ($265 million).