Goya CEO Bob Unanue Makes National Headlines, Predicts Global Food Shortage

Over the last few months, several agencies and individuals including U.S. President Joe Biden and the World Food Programme have warned of food shortages. Bob Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, has also predicted a global food shortage. What’s Unanue’s net worth?

Goya Foods was founded by Prudencio Unanue Ortiz. He was born in Spain in 1886 and moved to Puerto Rico in 1903 where he started a food distribution business. Unanue later became a broker for Spanish food. The company was founded in 1936 and was originally named Unanue & Sons but its name was changed to Goya Foods in 1961.

Goya Foods is the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S. The company is a leader in Latin American food and condiments in the U.S. Goya Foods manufactures and distributes more than 2,500 food products that it sources from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and South America.

Bob was born in 1954 in Wyckoff, N.J., and is the third generation of the family. He became the company’s CEO in 2004. He married Isabel Banuchi and the couple has three daughters, Isabel, Sofia, and Juliana.

In 2014, Forbes had estimated the Unanue family’s net worth at $1.1 billion. We don’t have an updated net worth for Unanue or his family.

Unanue has tried to maintain a low profile. He doesn't seem to have a Twitter account and has only 249 connections on LinkedIn. He isn't very active on LinkedIn either. However, he has made national headlines with his dire predictions about food shortages.

Speaking with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Unanue said, "We are on the precipice of a global food crisis.” He pointed out the high share of Ukraine and Russia in global wheat, edible oil, and fertilizer exports to drive home the point on how the Russia-Ukraine war is further complicating the food shortage situation.

He said that the world has “weaponized fuel” in what seems to be a reference to Russia, which has destroyed Ukraine’s ability to produce and export food. Some of Unanue’s comments were also dismissive of Biden. He said, the U.S. "provoked, in a way, this war by showing an incredible weakness around the globe.”

Unanue also pointed to the “lack of resolve” and also highlighted how the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan withdrawal. The country left many of those who worked for it fending for themselves when the Taliban took over. Incidentally, the U.S. forces also left behind a lot of military equipment in the country.

Biden’s popularity started to fall after the botched-up Afghanistan withdrawal and has continued to plummet amid multi-decade high inflation and the U.S. response to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Although Unanue has supported former President Donald Trump, the Unanue family has also collaborated with the Obamas in the past. In 2012, the family supported Michelle Obama with MyPlate, which is an initiative to promote balanced diets for African Americans and Hispanics.