Escalating food prices are creating hardship in some of the world’s poorest nations, says a farm-based Canadian international aid agency.
“We’re hearing from people on the ground that a fairly rapid increase in staple food prices is putting a lot of stress on households,” said Canadian Foodgrains Bank executive director Jim Cornelius.
“This price increase has been transmitted to markets around the world fairly quickly.”
The foodgrains bank is a church-based organization that uses crop and cash donations from farmers to provide food to hungry people around the world.
It donates crops directly but also uses money from the commercial sale of crops to buy food from farmers in poor nations for redistribution.
The recent fall of the government in Tunisia occurred after Tunisians began protesting over price inflation, especially in food prices. Protests have spread to Egypt as people there complain about an incompetent government and rising food prices.
Algeria is reported to have sped up durum purchases to ensure food does not run short.
Governments in poorer countries have more problems affording imports, so the danger of hunger is increasing as world supplies of some crops decline.
Cornelius said rapid price increases and decreases are a bigger problem than just high prices because volatility does not allow countries and farmers to develop budgets or invest in farming.
