World Food prices to remain high for foreseeable future, says UN
Pastor Dale Morgan
World Food prices to remain high for foreseeable future, says UN*
· Production is up - but not by enough, report claims
· Import costs rising more steeply for poorest nations
* Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
* The Guardian,
* Friday May 23 2008
Workers handle sacks of imported rice in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
World food prices are likely to stay high and volatile for the
foreseeable future despite some record crops this year, according to a
report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation yesterday.
Food import bills around the world are expected to total more than a
trillion US dollars in 2008, $215bn (£108bn) more than last year. The
poorest and most vulnerable countries will be the hardest hit. The FAO
report said poor nations' collective food import bill was expected to
rise to $169bn this year, up 40% from 2007.
The FAO's Food Outlook report suggests that production has responded to
the price rises of recent months, which have threatened 100 million of
the world's poorest people with hunger. But it said that high
agricultural input prices, national policies curbing exports, the
cultivation of crops for biofuels, and rising demand would mean that
prices would fail to stabilise or return to the low levels of previous
years.
"Rice has caught the headlines in recent weeks, but from dairy to wheat
and soybeans to sugar, price spikes and market volatility appear to have
become more the norm than the exception," the FAO report said.
The overall picture has improved in the weeks since the height of the
crisis in March, with prices of most staples falling slightly. Wheat
production has responded particularly quickly to the high prices, with
huge increases in planting likely to lead to record wheat production
this year.
Rice output is expected to rise this year by 2.3%, and the FAO predicts
more will be grown than consumed, but the report predicted the rice
market would remain tight because some countries, most importantly
India, had imposed export restrictions to guarantee domestic supply.
"The pressure would considerably ease if India, which is about to
harvest a bumper 2007 secondary crop, would relax its current export
curbs," the FAO said.
The Japanese government yesterday announced it would release some of its
huge stockpile of rice to help ease the crisis, sending about 20,000
tonnes to five African nations in coming weeks. The move is part of a
$50m emergency food aid plan to be endorsed by Japan's cabinet on Friday.
Japan's total aid package, including grains, beans and other foods as
well as rice, will be distributed in 12 countries, including
Afghanistan, by international relief agencies such as the World Food
Programme, AP reported.
Production of corn and other "coarse grains" across the world is
expected to rise, but the increase will be outstripped by rising demand,
powered largely by the use of corn to make biofuel, which is expected to
rise by 40%.
The diversion of crops, land and other agricultural resources to make
biofuels will be one of the subjects on the agenda of a world food
crisis summit hosted by the FAO in Rome early next month.
Today's Food Outlook report listed the new global attention being paid
to agriculture as one of the positive signs for long-term prices.
"Collective international action is needed now to develop agriculture
and fight hunger," the report said.