Azerbaijan, Baku, 24 May / Trend corr A. Badalova/ When food prices continue to stay high as IFPRI research has shown then poverty will accentuate," Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Division Director at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said.
This week World Bank stated that world's poverty level may dramatically grow in next three years given rising food expenditures and unexpected drop in rice prices. According to WB Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub, food prices are not expected to drop. Prices will be increasing during at least next several years. Poverty will gain larger scale.
"Food prices will remain high for some time to come. Some of the reasons are that: demand will continue to increase in Asia (especially China and India) and some African countries which are doing well economically; the demand for food grains and vegetable oils for biofuel will increase given the high prices for fossil fuel - the US and the EU will continue to encourage substitution of biofuel for fossil fuel," Asenso-Okyere said to Trend on 23 May.
"The high price for crude oil will stay for some time and that means that the price of fertilizer, chemicals and other farm inputs will remain high and therefore provide cost push for food prices," he said.
World's food prices have hiked by 60% in recent three years. As compared to the beginning of 2002, food expenditures have increased by average 2.5 times.
The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]