São Paulo – This year the world should use 104 million tonnes of grain to produce biofuels. The number is included in a report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), disclosed last week. According to a study, the volume represents 5% of the global production of grain.
This information is on the site of the United Nations in Brazil. The main grain used in production of the biofuel is maize. Brazil, one of the great global producers of grain, however, uses sugarcane, which is not a grain, in the production of ethanol. In the case of the United States, the input is maize.
The North Americans should produce 91 million tonnes of maize this year. The increase, according to the FAO report, should be 19% over 2008. The growth of the crop should take place due to the production of the biofuel.
However, there should be a reduction in world grain production this year as against 2008. According to a study by the United Nations, entitled "Crop Prospects and Food Situation", the causes of lower production are bad weather and high production costs, mainly in developing countries.
In an interview, the director of the FAO office in the United States, Daniel Gustafson, said to Radio UN, in Washington, that production in 2009 cannot compete with the record 2.2 billion tonnes produced in 2008.
"This is partly because of a smaller cultivated area due to the lower prices of some products. Other factors would be the drought in Argentina, which affected wheat, the drought in Asia and also in other parts. As a whole, the situation is good, but lower than in 2008," he explained. The report forecasts a much lower maize crop in southern Africa.
According to the FAO, food prices are still high in several developig countries. "Prices are still high for consumers, especially in the countries that import significant volumes, and the crisis continues," he said. In South America, the most serious case is Argentina, where wheat production was halved.
*Translated by Mark Ament