The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) pointed out that global food prices are rising at the fastest pace in 10 years, aggravating the plight of the most vulnerable group of countries already suffering from the Wuhan pneumonia (new coronavirus disease, Covid-19) epidemic, and China’s massive purchase of basic food is one of the reasons for this wave of soaring food prices.
“AFP” reported on the 2nd, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization information, food prices in May this year than the same period last year nearly 40% higher, is the largest increase since September 2011; to 12 months as the basis for calculation, corn, soybean prices are soaring, up 88%, 73%, cereals and dairy prices also rose 38% The price of sugar and meat rose by 34% and 10% respectively. This is obviously very worrying,” said Arif Husain, the organization’s chief economist.
As for the reason for the rise in food prices, French economist Philippe Chalmin bluntly pointed to China, which is buying basic foodstuffs such as rapeseed, grains and meat in a big way, “it’s really China that is fuelling this wave of food price increases. Other reasons for the rise in food prices include the drought in Brazil, a rebound in oil prices and soaring shipping costs.
The FAO fears that higher food prices will increase social instability in countries already in political turmoil, as the spike in basic food prices between 2007 and 2008 triggered riots in some cities around the world and peaked between 2010 and ’11, when the “Arab Spring” revolutions were a major threat to the economy. Food prices peaked in 2010-11 and played a role as a harbinger of the then “Arab Spring” revolutionary wave.
FAO Deputy Director of Trade and Markets Josef Schmidhuber believes that food prices will remain high this year, especially if oil prices rise, and FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian said, “The future of food markets will be more volatile than in the past. “
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