South East Asia feels the economic pinch of Ukraine war

South East Asia feels the economic pinch of Ukraine war

SINGAPORE — Jia Ruiying moved to Singapore more than two years ago to set up a business. Then the Covid pandemic hit. Now — as the owner of the country's only Russian supermarket — she is facing a whole other set of challenges. Russian Supermart, which stocks a range of food and drink from across Eastern Europe, hasn't had a shipment since four days before Russia launched its attack on Ukraine on 24 February. "Our products from Ukrainian suppliers will likely stop," says Ms Jia. It comes at a time when many ex-pat Eastern Europeans are looking for a bit of comfort amid a harrowing situation at home. "When the war started, a lot of Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians panicked and came to my store, afraid of not being able to get the food they want for their families here, " she says. "So they bought a lot of these items from the store and stocked up at home." As a result of the conflict, she is now planning to diversify her supply chain "to more places in Eastern Europe to avoid any delays in product shipments due to the Russian-Ukraine war". On top of this, the decision by Western