PARIS: G20 nations taking stock of the third global food
price surge in four years will wait for September’s crop report from the US
Department of Agriculture before deciding whether to take joint action on the
issue, France’s farm minister said on Tuesday.
Senior officials held a conference call on Monday on rising prices after drought in the United States and poor crops from Russia and the Black Sea bread basket stirred new fears about food supply and inflation.
“There will be a communication at the end of September. I will wait for the results given by the United States around Sept 12 on the latest estimates for corn supplies,” French Agriculture and Food Minister Stephane Le Foll told BFM TV.
The decision to wait
for the USDA report was taken at a conference call between senior officials of France,
the United |States and G20 president Mexico on Monday. Representatives from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Bank, the OECD and the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) were also on the call.
The call was organised
in the framework of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), created by the G20 last year.
France, which currently presides over the G20 agriculture body had initially said a decision would be based on an AMIS report also due in mid-September.
Officials in the call, held via video conference, discussed the drought in the United States that lead to a surge in corn and soybean prices and a drought in the former Soviet Union that slashed wheat crops, but they stressed that rice prices remained stable as opposed to 2008 when food price spikes triggered unrest in poorer countries, the ministry said.
“The current market situation is thus worrying,” the French said in a statement, immediately adding however that “no threat is hanging over world food security.”
The head of the FAO called the G20 on Monday for coordinated action to ease worries about food prices. reuters
Senior officials held a conference call on Monday on rising prices after drought in the United States and poor crops from Russia and the Black Sea bread basket stirred new fears about food supply and inflation.
“There will be a communication at the end of September. I will wait for the results given by the United States around Sept 12 on the latest estimates for corn supplies,” French Agriculture and Food Minister Stephane Le Foll told BFM TV.
The decision to wait
for the USDA report was taken at a conference call between senior officials of France,
the United |States and G20 president Mexico on Monday. Representatives from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Bank, the OECD and the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) were also on the call.
The call was organised
in the framework of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), created by the G20 last year.
France, which currently presides over the G20 agriculture body had initially said a decision would be based on an AMIS report also due in mid-September.
Officials in the call, held via video conference, discussed the drought in the United States that lead to a surge in corn and soybean prices and a drought in the former Soviet Union that slashed wheat crops, but they stressed that rice prices remained stable as opposed to 2008 when food price spikes triggered unrest in poorer countries, the ministry said.
“The current market situation is thus worrying,” the French said in a statement, immediately adding however that “no threat is hanging over world food security.”
The head of the FAO called the G20 on Monday for coordinated action to ease worries about food prices. reuters
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