Food and energy billionaires $453bn richer than two years ago, finds Oxfam

Grain falls from a combine harvester into a trailer during a harvest in Ukraine before the invasion by Russia. Photograph: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have grown by $453bn over the past two years owing to soaring energy and commodity prices during the pandemic and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, a report by Oxfam has revealed.

As the world’s business and political elite meet for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the development charity said spiralling global food prices had helped create “62 new food billionaires” in just 24 months.