Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) holds a report on "Sovereign Wealth Funds and Recipient Country Policies" at a news conference during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund Building in Washington, DC, April 12, 2008.
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Food Prices to Remain High
The growth in food prices will slow down for a few years, but the prices will remain very high, signaled the joint report of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released in Paris on Thursday.
According to the outlook for 2008 through 2017, beef and pork prices will rise by roughly 20 percent vs. 1998 through 2007, and sugar prices will increase by 30 percent. The prices for wheat, corn and dried milk will go up by 40 percent to 60 percent, the report says.
At the same time, the prices for seed-oil will soar over 80 percent, the FAO and OECD experts warned in their outlook timed to the World Food Summit that Rome hosts in mid-June.
According to FAO, 37 nations, including Moldova and Tadjikistan, have faced the food crisis and call for immediate food assistance.
The key reasons of the rise in food prices are bad meteorological conditions, poor harvest, especially in such states as Australia, production of biological fuel that drives up demand for cereals usually used as the animal feedstuff.
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