Soaring Global Food Prices Concerns Poor Regions

By Chowa Choo
Epoch Times StaffCreated: Sep 2, 2010Last Updated: Sep 2, 2010

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A protester sets fire to tyres on a street in Maputo, Mozambique on September 1, 2010. At least three people, including a 12 year-old boy, were killed on Wednesday during protests over rising food and fuel prices. Police fired at the demonstrators and the 12-year-old boy who was killed in the crossfire, according to witnesses. (Arthur Frayer/AFP/Getty Images)

The soaring cost of wheat in July and August, pushed international food prices to their highest peak since September 2008 and the fast price rise is cause for some concern for poorer regions around the world, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

Higher sugar and oil seed prices have also contributed to the rise in food costs.

The destruction of wheat crops accounts for the majority of the decrease in grain production this year with wheat harvest at a mere 5 percent compared to 2009.

Adverse weather conditions destroyed this year’s wheat harvest in many countries.

In Pakistan, floods have wiped out much the country’s wheat stock and crop, and farmers are now in desperate need of the wheat seed for the September-November planting season.

Russia has suspended export of wheat and other agricultural products until the end of the year. After months of drought, the FAO estimates that Russia’s wheat production will drop by 10 percent this year.

This year’s harvest in Nepal may be just half of last year’s, which will adversely affect about 600,000 people in the country, the United Nations World Food Program said in August. Several regions around the country have been hit by natural disasters including drought, heavy snowfall, and hailstorms. These climatic calamities come on top of the country’s already prevalent political conflicts and economic problems.

In Malawi the issue of food insecurity has caused a political storm, with the Malawi government saying the country has ample food surpluses, while the U.N.’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network projects that up to a million poor people in southern regions, will need food aid. It says, “Unclear government response plans” and “lack of funds” to transport food the south are causing insecurity.

Although the FAO reduced it’s estimate for worldwide grain production by 41 million tons for 2010, it still projects that overall output will be the third highest on record with good wheat harvests in China and the United States helping to offset shortages elsewhere.