Sunny Verghese, the CEO of Singapore agricultural trading house Olam Agri, believes that geopolitical tensions and other factors will spur conflicts over access to dwindling food supplies.

"We have fought many wars over oil. We will fight bigger wars over food and water," he cautioned.

Food prices began to climb during the pandemic and then surged again when the Russia-Ukraine conflict kicked off, and the situation is expected to get worse.

Verghese also pointed to the recent trend of governments imposing trade barriers as they try to protect domestic food stocks. This is making food inflation worse, setting off even bigger food security concerns.

According to Verghese, more than 1,200 non-tariff trade barriers were put in place in 2022 in response to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, creating what he termed "an exaggerated demand-supply imbalance." In his opinion, governments engaging in this behavior deserve much of the blame.

One protectionist policy Verghese singled out was Indonesia's 2022 ban on palm oil exports, which was aimed at protecting the local market. Similarly, India put export restrictions in place last year on some varieties of rice.

In addition, with wealthier nations building up surpluses of certain strategic commodities, the demand and prices for these commodities are growing accordingly.