Brasília – This decade, meat prices should rise by up to 30% and those of grain should grow over 20%, according to the 2011-2020 Agriculture Perspectives, disclosed on Friday (17) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The alternative to avoid this prognosis, according to the organisations, is to invest more in the countryside.
With regard to agricultural commodities, however, the tendency is for good crops to allow for a reduction in prices from 2011 to 2020 – different from what took place early this year. High commodity prices affect the food chain, increasing inflation and the values paid by consumers worldwide.
In recent months, world authorities placed a warning about food prices and called for governments to seek measures to reduce the effects on consumers – mainly those living in developing nations.
"In general, higher prices are good news for farmers, but there is impact on the poorest people in developing nations who spend most of their income on food, and this may be devastating,” said the secretary general at the OECD, Angel Gurría.
To Gurría, it is fundamental for governments to start providing more transparent information about market relations to their populations. He also defended greater investment and stimulus for productivity in developing nations. “[It is necessary to] stop production and policies that distort trade, to help those most vulnerable to manage risk and uncertainty better,” he said.
The director general at FAO, Jacques Diouf, said that, in the current market, price volatility may remain as a characteristic of the agricultural sector, so he defended the adoption of “coherent policies”. “The key solution to this problem would be greater investment in agriculture and a strengthening of rural development in developing nations,” he said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
