http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24065922/UN food agency: Soaring food prices to persist
Millions worldwide are vulnerable; developing nations especially at risk
updated 4:05 p.m. ET, Fri., April. 11, 2008
ROME - Even with bigger crops, soaring food prices that have sparked unrest across the globe are likely to persist, threatening millions of people worldwide, a U.N. agency said Friday.
Prices of bread, rice, milk, cooking oil and other basic foodstuffs have sharply increased in the past months in many developing countries, according to a report by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization. Prices of wheat and rice have doubled compared to last year, while those of corn are more than a third higher.
Grain prices have risen as a result of steady demand, especially from China and India, supply shortages and new export restrictions, FAO said.
Even though world grain production is expected to increase this year by 2.6 percent to a record 2.16 billion tons, experts say this is going to have little impact on the prices.
“All indications we have is that this is not a short-term effect ... where the first year you have price increases and the following year there is an increase of supply that brings the prices down,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said at a news conference.
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