Food import costs hit record highs and threaten more poor, says FAO

Food import costs hit record highs and threaten more poor, says FAO

Worldwide food import costs are expected to hit a record high of nearly $2 trillion in 2022, putting pressure on the world’s poorest countries, which have likely shipped considerably smaller volumes of food, the UN Food Agency (FAO) said. this Friday (11).

World food prices hit record levels in March after Russia invaded Ukraine, a major producer of grains and oilseeds, and although they have retreated somewhat since then, they remain above last year’s high levels.

The increase is disproportionately affecting economically vulnerable countries, and this is expected to continue into the year ahead, even if the overall agricultural supply situation is expected to improve somewhat.

“These are alarming signs from a food security perspective,” the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said in its semi-annual Food Outlook report.

The world’s food import bill is expected to reach $1.94 trillion this year, up 10% from a year earlier and higher than previously expected, FAO said.

In terms of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, which are energy-intensive to produce, FAO said global import costs are expected to rise by nearly 50% this year to $424 billion, forcing some countries to buy and use less of these products. .

This will inevitably lead to lower productivity, lower domestic food availability and “negative repercussions for global agricultural production and food security” in 2023, he said.

Source: CNN Brasil