G20 ministers to meet as food crisis risk spikes amid COVID-19

China will attend a G20 special meeting on global food security, as the UN warns the coronavirus pandemic could threaten global food supply.

The meeting, led by Saudi Arabia, is expected to take place on April 21.

Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Changfu, along with other ministers, will join the meeting online, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing on Friday.

They will discuss measures to deal with food and agricultural security issues under the current situation, he said, adding that China highly commends this action.

Last week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said supermarkets remain stocked for now, but "protracted pandemic crisis could quickly put a strain on the food supply chains, a complex web of interactions involving farmers, agricultural inputs, processing plants, shipping, retailers and more."

In the report, the FAO said the issue is not food scarcity yet. Rather it's countries' drastic measures in response to the virus.

The FAO said it is imperative that countries keep the supply chains going in order to avoid food shortages.

A woman looks at an empty shelf with a sign announcing the rationing of toilet paper to one pack per person at a grocery store in Potsdam, Germany, March 20, 2020, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues. /Reuters

People shop at a supermarket in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, February 18, 2020. /Xinhua

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks to residents at a supermarket in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, January 27, 2020. /Xinhua

Farmers pack celeries in a greenhouse in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, January 30, 2020. The vegetable will be sent to Wuhan. /Xinhua

It urged countries to expand and improve emergency food assistance and social protection programs to help the most vulnerable people comply with stay-at-home regulations.

The report also said governments need to ensure farmers' access to markets despite restrictions on movement. It made a reference to China's "Vegetable Basket" policies that lessened the impact on farmers and kept food shortages to a minimum during Wuhan lockdown.

Farmers and merchants in nine provinces worked together to supply grains, oil, meat, vegetables, milk, eggs and aquatic products to Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Zhao said China hopes the meeting will send a positive signal in safeguarding global food security as countries around the world are ramping up efforts to fight the virus.

China has always attached great importance to the issue of food security and hopes the meeting will send a positive signal in fighting the pandemic with solidarity and maintaining the security and stability of the global food supply, he said.