São Paulo – The price of food should take a while to drop and may even rise in coming months, according to economist Sumiter Singh Broca, who is responsible for the development of food policy at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Broca made the statement on Wednesday (13), at a conference in Malaysia. According to him, the value should take a while to drop as the global production is not keeping up with demand.
According to the economist, the reasons causing the price growth since 2000, peaking in 2008, were the growing world population, the high cost of energy and the lack of offer. To Broca, prices are not going to drop to the values before 2008 within the next ten years.
The economist said that among the problems for expansion of global production is the lack of land for cultivation. “It is necessary for governments to invest more in agriculture,” he said.
The FAO food price index includes 55 commodities. It reached 233.8 points in June and rose 1% over May this year, boosted by sugar, among other products. Despite the climb, the index is still below that of February this year, when it peaked at 237.7 points. According to Broca, prices should not rise much in coming months as rice and grain crops were good.
*Translated by Mark Ament
