Food Prices Ease Slightly But Are Still Volatile: UN Official
Finance Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
By: Reuters With AP, CNBC.com
The new head of the U.N. food agency said he expects food prices to remain volatile in 2012 —and more people will go hungry.
Jose Graziano da Silva, Brazil’s former food security minister, took over as director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization Jan. 1. He told reporters Tuesday his top priority was to make good on the agency’s mandate: eradicate world hunger.
“Prices will not be going up as in the sense of the last two to three years but will also not drop down. There may be some reductions but not drastic,” Graziano da Silva told a news conference in Rome.
Global food prices measured by the FAO hit a peak in February, but have been falling since June as crops have improved and concerns about global economic turmoil have reined in demand growth.
High food prices have helped fuel inflation and contributed to civil unrest and the Arab Spring earlier this year.
Graziano da Silva said he did not expect the economic slowdown in Europe to impact funding for FAO projects, because the amount countries donated was such a small proportion of gross domestic product that they were unlikely to cut it. He said the slowdown was likely to increase the number of people at risk of hunger in the world, however.
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