The
era of falling food prices has come to an end with the world population set to
add another 2 billion people, according to Cargill Inc., the U.S. farm
commodities trader.
“You
don’t have to be a reviving bull on commodities to believe that the era, which
went from the 50’s, 60’s to 70’s and early 80s, of ever decreasing food prices
in real terms has probably come to an end,” Paul Conway, vice chairman of
Cargill, said at the Kingsman sugar conference in
Dubai on 4 February.
The
FAO food-price index averaged 228 points last year, 23 percent
more than in 2010 and above the 200 points recorded in 2008, when food riots
erupted from Haiti to Egypt. Prices since then have declined 11 percent by December.
Cargill,
based in Minnesota, trades all kinds of farm commodities, including cocoa,
soybeans, corn, sugar, meat, wheat and ethanol. Conway is based in Cobham, England.
Wheat has doubled since the end of 2005, raw sugar is
twice the price in December 2008 and orange juice climbed to a record last
month.
Group
of 20 farm ministers agreed to a plan last year in June to set limits on export
bans and create a crop database to tackle what French President Nicolas Sarkozy
called the “plague” of rising food prices.