Record global food prices will be on the agenda of the Group of Eight heads of state summit in July for the first time in almost 30 years, amid mounting concerns about the social, political and economic impact of the food crisis.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday gave its starkest warning about the impact of rising commodities, saying food and oil prices “risk becoming a destabilising force in the global economy”.
Yasuo Fukuda, Japan’s prime minister, said in a letter to his G8 colleagues that soaring food prices were posing “imminent and serious” global challenges.
“Threat of hunger and malnutrition is increasing, and the high prices have also brought about social unrest,” he said. Mr Fukuda’s missive came after Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, urged his Japanese counterpart in a letter to put the food crisis on the G8 agenda.
Japan is chairing this year’s summit, to be held in Hokkaido.
The elevation of the food crisis to the world’s richest countries’ summit agenda comes as the price for staples such as rice and corn surges to record highs, triggering riots in countries such as Cameroon and Bangladesh. In Haiti, the government fell this month after a rise in rice prices triggered food riots.
The price of rice has jumped to a record $1,000 (€632, £500) a tonne – from about $300 a year ago – and corn is trading near a record $6 a bushel. The cost of wheat and soyabean reached a peak earlier this year, but has fallen by about 30 per cent since farmers sowed more of both crops.
Mr Fukuda said the G8 would discuss food trade, biofuels, improving agricultural productivity and the impact of climate change on agriculture.
John Lipsky, the IMF’s deputy managing director, said in a speech in Rome to an energy forum that the rise in commodities prices required a “globally coherent response”, as prices for food and oil had reached a level that could destabilise the global economy.
His warning contrasts with the institution’s much milder comments at its recent spring meeting, when it said: “Inflationary risks – notably from higher food, energy and other commodity prices – have risen.”
Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, said at the weekend that the food crisis, if not handled properly, “could trigger a cascade of other multiple crises . . . affecting economic growth, social progress, and even political security around the world.”
The last time the world’s richest countries discussed a threat to food security was in 1981, when their communiqué noted the “importance of accelerated food production in the developing world and of greater world food security.”
But later that decade, bumper crops depressed food prices to record lows. Corn prices, for example, bottomed in 1987 below $1.5 a bushel, well below today’s figure of almost $6.0 a bushel.
Additional reporting by Harvey Morris at the United Nations and Chris Bryant in Washington
