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From Hormuz to the Red Sea, chokepoint wars are quietly re-pricing the world's food
Houthis claimed a major advance in Yemen this week while tightening their grip on the Red Sea shipping lane — the first significant escalation on that front since fighting with the government resumed in July, breaking a de-facto truce held since 2022. In Ukraine, Russia is pressing to take the Donbas fortress cities, with civilians ordered to flee as Moscow nears control of the region. Iran's re-escalated war with the US and Israel has left Hormuz traffic at roughly 15 transits a day versus 110 pre-war, and food prices reached their highest August level in years, with vegetable oils especially elevated.
The connective tissue is shipping. Two of the world's three key maritime corridors — Hormuz and the Red Sea — are now compromised by wars whose land fronts show no path to settlement. That hits import-dependent, food-insecure states hardest: Yemen, where 18.3 million people are acutely food insecure and the health system is buckling under renewed fighting; Sudan, where 33.7 million need aid and the RSF siege of El Obeid continues; and East Africa's drought belt. Meanwhile Cuba and Iran's collapsing currencies show how war economics compound hunger — both above 2,500% depreciation against baseline.
Watch items
- Yemen — Houthi Red Sea squeeze impact on wheat imports
- Sudan — RSF El Obeid siege starvation spread into Kordofan
- Iran — Hormuz closure risk for Gulf food and fuel imports