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| [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Washington: The world cannot afford for high and volatile food prices to
be the “new normal,” while millions of people continue to suffer from hunger
and to die from malnutrition, the World Bank Group warned.
“A new norm of high prices seems to be consolidating,” said
Otaviano Canuto, World Bank Group’s Vice President for Poverty Reduction and
Economic Management. “The world cannot afford to be complacent to this trend
while 870 million people still live in hunger and millions of children die
every year from preventable diseases caused by malnutrition.”
According to the latest edition of the World Bank Group’s Food
Price Watch report, published quarterly, global food prices stabilized
following last July’s record peak. In October, prices were 5 percent below that
peak. Prices were driven down by fats and oils, with more modest declines in
grains. Seasonal increase in supplies, the absence of panic policies, such as
food export restrictions, and better expectations for the future are behind
such trends, although markets remain tight in general.
Nonetheless, prices remain at high levels – 7 percent higher
than a year ago. Grains, in particular, are expensive. They are 12 percent
above their levels 12 months before and very close to the all-time high of
2008. Maize, for instance, is 17 percent higher than in October 2011 and 10
percent above the record-high prices of February 2011, despite their decrease
of 3 percent between August and October.
“Although we haven’t seen a food crisis as the one of 2008,
food security should remain a priority,” said Canuto. “We need additional
efforts to strengthen nutrition programs, safety nets, and sustainable
agriculture, especially when the right actions can bring about exceptional
benefits.”
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and
others, 870 million people live with chronic undernourishment, an unchanged
figure since 2007-09, and behind the necessary improvement to achieve the
hunger Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by
2015. Furthermore, child malnutrition accounts for more than a third of the
mortality burden of children under the age of five, and malnutrition during
pregnancy for more than 20 percent of maternal mortality.
Therefore, programs to improve nutrition, for instance,
would multiply the benefits -- from improving cognitive development and
learning; to contributing to the empowerment of women and maternal health;
reducing the negative interaction of malnutrition and infectious diseases; and
increasing economic growth.
As per the Food Price Watch, weather will determine food
prices in the near future, along with other factors, such as oil prices and the
extent of emerging export competition – all of which remain uncertain at this
point.