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Aside from the humanitarian and public health concerns (which are enormous) in a world where nearly 1 billion people are chronically hungry, public anger over rising food prices is also seen as a major destabilizing influence.
The ouster of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali last month after a series of street demonstrations protesting rising food prices, unemployment, and political corruption has been followed by similar protests across Northern Africa and Western Asia.
While certainly not the only reason for these protests, the rising price of food staples is seen a major contributor to the public’s growing anger in places like Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen.
In frantic attempts to avoid similar bouts of civil unrest, many countries (ie. Algeria, Jordan, Turkey, Libya, Iraq, Qatar, Morocco and Lebanon) have recently begun to buy up additional stockpiles of wheat, which in turn has helped to drive up the global price of that commodity even more.
Today, the FAO has released their latest Food Price Index report, and the news isn’t good.
World food prices reach new historic peak
03-02-2011
3.4 percent surge in January - FAO updates Food Price Index
Food prices keep rising.
3 February 2011, Rome - World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices.
The Index averaged 231 points in January and was up 3.4 percent from December 2010. This is the highest level (both in real and nominal terms) since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990. Prices of all monitored commodity groups registered strong gains in January, except for meat, which remained unchanged.
High prices
"The new figures clearly show that the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating," said FAO economist and grains expert Abdolreza Abbassian. "These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come. High food prices are of major concern especially for low-income food deficit countries that may face problems in financing food imports and for poor households which spend a large share of their income on food."
"The only encouraging factor so far stems from a number of countries, where - due to good harvests - domestic prices of some of the food staples remain low compared to world prices," Abbassian added.
FAO emphasized that the Food Price Index has been revised, largely reflecting adjustments to its meat price index. The revision, which is retroactive, has produced new figures for all the indices but the overall trends measured since 1990 remain unchanged.
The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 245 points in January, up 3 percent from December and the highest since July 2008, but still 11 percent below its peak in April 2008. The increase in January mostly reflected continuing increases in international prices of wheat and maize, amid tightening supplies, while rice prices fell slightly, as the timing coincides with the harvesting of main crops in major exporting countries.
The Oils/Fats Price Index rose by 5.6 percent to 278 points, nearing the June 2008 record level, reflecting an increasingly tight supply and demand balance across the oilseeds complex.
The Dairy Price Index averaged 221 points in January, up 6.2 percent from December, but still 17 percent below its peak in November 2007. A firm global demand for dairy products, against the backdrop of a normal seasonal decline of production in the southern hemisphere, continued to underpin dairy prices.
The Sugar Price Index averaged 420 points in January, up 5.4 percent from December. International sugar prices remain high, driven by tight global supplies.
By contrast, the FAO Meat Price Index was steady at around 166 points, as declining meat prices in Europe, caused by a fall in consumer confidence following a feed contamination scandal, was compensated for by a slight increase in export prices from Brazil and the United States.
