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East Asia & Pacific is facing some great development challenges today: urbanization, protection of the environment, the need to find renewable energy sources and many others. This site wants to create a conversation around those important issues. More »

food prices

Do not worry about inflation in China for now, worry about asset prices and quality

Submitted by Louis Kuijs on Thu, 2009-09-24 13:20

As China’s economy seems to be recovering, many people here have expressed concerns about inflation. I was able to air my views on the subject in an Op-Ed in China’s main English language newspaper, the China Daily, together with two other experts.

In motivating their concerns on inflation, people cite the unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus in many countries to combat the global economic crisis, China’s own large-scale stimulus measures, or recent increases in prices of several food items as possible reasons. In my view we do not have to worry about inflation for now. There is simply too much spare capacity across the world. However, the very loose monetary conditions in China can cause other damage if left unchecked for too long. It makes sense to try to avoid future asset price bubbles and problems for banks’ balance sheets.

As prices fall internationally, developing countries still face high food costs

Submitted by James I Davison on Thu, 2009-05-07 15:33

A little more than a month ago, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) introduced a database tool and a press release highlighting a rather disconcerting trend. As the global economic crisis worsened, food prices have fallen at an international level. But, surprisingly, the cost of food has not dropped at the same rate, or at all, in poor developing countries, according the FAO.

The new online tool allows for anyone to easily keep track of food prices in 55 developing countries, comparing the data on both domestic and international levels and tracking change over time. In East Asia, the tool includes data from China, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

I am struck that the release of this data seems to be the first time I’ve heard of this trend. And apparently, even the experts aren't sure what is causing food prices to stay high for those who can least afford it. On his blog, Oxfam’s Duncan Green quoted FAO's Henri Josserand:

"The reasons for this 'stickiness' are not fully understood at this time. We hypothesize that there are several factors, possibly interacting in complex way. So far, we have not found any set of explanatory variables that apply to the whole sample. Actually, we are pretty sure that understanding the reasons will require in-depth analysis at the national or regional levels."

FAO says it hopes the database will provide information for "policy and decision-makers in agricultural production and trade, development and also humanitarian work." Hopefully, this database will help bring attention to high prices and food shortages in the places that can least afford them.

 

Financial turmoil could threaten poverty reduction gains

Submitted by David Dollar on Wed, 2008-10-15 11:11

During the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF, World Bank President Robert Zoellick made a plea to the leaders of the world’s richest countries not to forget developing nations, even as they hammer out ideas to steady their own economies. Watch his speech

I spent the last week in Washington, DC, at the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF. There were several things on my mind as I left Beijing ten days ago. I was looking forward to a seminar of Asian policy makers focusing on the food inflation crisis and its impact on the poor. And I was going to speak on a panel on climate change, how poor countries can adapt and what to do to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

The financial crisis, however, hijacked the meetings. The panel on food prices was canceled at the last minute and it was hard to get anyone to focus on long-term issues such as climate change. And attention was definitely drawn away from poor countries and poor people to focus on the wild ride in the U.S. and other advanced stock markets.

Rice is expensive: a blessing or a curse for Cambodia?

Submitted by Stéphane Guimbert on Wed, 2008-10-01 09:31

A rice seller in one of Cambodia's markets. The price of rice, a staple food for Cambodians, has doubled between July 2007 and July 2008.

Last week, I attended a very interesting seminar by the Cambodia Development Research Institute (CDRI). They presented the result of their recent study on the impact of high food prices (which the World Bank and several others financed). I found the results, presented by CDRI’s Chan Sophal, very interesting, showing the complexity of the question.

The simple reaction is that higher price of food is bad for the poor. CDRI is able to confirm some of this by tracking prices (the price of rice doubled between July 2007 and July 2008) and reminding us that food accounts for two thirds of consumption for a poor family. And there will be little substitution effect to other goods (even within food, most of the caloric intake comes from rice, also very difficult to replace–although CDRI shows that Cambodians in part shifted to lower quality rice to make up for the higher price).

What the world ate, what it eats now, and for how much

Submitted by Claudia Gabarain on Wed, 2008-08-13 10:56
From the book "Hungry Planet".

I know the book is not new, but... photos from Peter Menzel's and Faith D'Aluisio's very successful "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" 2005 book have been making the rounds in neverending email forwards over the last few months, perhaps jumpstarted again by the current food prices situation. If you're not familiar with it, what Menzel and D'Aluisio did was to meet and photograph families in 24 countries around the world to compose a photo essay of their weekly food purchases, how much they spent on average, and a couple of favorite recipes added for good measure.

If you didn't get the memo email, and even if you did, you may be interested in checking out Time Magazine's online version, which includes three slideshows: the first two (one and two) document the families posing with their weekly goods, and the third shows the different ways in which they carry and prepare the food.

A closer look at that rotten papaya - facts on food waste

Submitted by Claudia Gabarain on Sun, 2008-07-27 21:40

I'm getting a lot of satisfaction lately from this blog, and here is the very last example: in response to a rather light posting simply calling attention to an ingenious awareness campaign, I received this comment from reader S.Y. which provides actual data, links to recent, relevant reports, and makes a solid connection between food waste, development, and the East Asia & Pacific region:

"Despite its personal perspective style, your article on food waste awareness is very relevant to both the food crises recently making the headlines and the Bank's EAP region.

You are hardly alone in housing that ugly peach. Food waste occurs at different levels of a chain extending from harvesting to consumption. Household food waste is, as you point out, a relatively recent phenomenon in many developed countries (what the Bank delights in calling the North). This was publicised in July 2008 when Gordon Brown urged Britons to stop wasting food. The U.K. report "Food Matters" http://tinyurl.com/ypmpxq  says consumers in this country throw away 4.1 million tonnes of edible food (worth an average of £420--USD836 or €533 at today's rate) per household per year. Nearly a decade ago, a U.S. report estimated an annual waste of 10 times more, 41 million tonnes, of edible food at the consumer and food-service levels in that country! (Kantor et al., Food Review 1997 20:2-12).

Food waste awareness - Guilty of housing that ugly peach

Submitted by Claudia Gabarain on Fri, 2008-07-25 14:29
(Found at divinecaroline.com)

Here's an eye-catching way of raising awareness about food waste. The Instituto Akatu, a Brazilian organization aimed at making consumers more conscious about their choices, participated a few months ago in a campaign about food waste. It came up with a brochure that imitated the style of those used by supermarkets to advertise their weekly offers, but shows the food all rotten (in their estimation, 1/3 of all food purchased goes bad before being eaten --I guess this figure applies to Brazil). A group of actors posing as supermarket employees handed these out outside the supermarket, raising a good number of eyebrows, I bet.

The brochure resonates with me not because it discovered any hidden fact --although 1/3 sounds like a *really high* proportion--, but because it reminds me of what I know is the case in my household and I'm not proud to admit: I'd swear that papaya was sitting in my fridge last night. And I think I've met that avocado before.

Picture the figures of the food crisis

Submitted by Claudia Gabarain on Mon, 2008-06-02 22:09

Using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the OECD, BBC News online created some interesting graphics showing the impact of and factors in the current food crisis. They include a 30-year look at food commodity prices, US ethanol production, world population growth, changing eating habits, and demand for biofuels among others. Worth a look.

Rising food prices and East Asia: trends and options

Submitted by Milan Brahmbhatt on Mon, 2008-05-05 20:35

Soaring food prices have suddenly become a major concern for policy makers in East Asia.  The price of rice - which provides one third of the region's caloric intake - is a particular worry.  Rice prices have been moving higher since around 2004, although this was from very depressed levels in the early years of the decade.  Prices surpassed $300 a ton in early 2006 for the first time since the late 1990s, kept moving higher, and then took off at an accelerating pace from late 2007:  up 11 percent in the the fourth quarter, then 56 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and then 61 percent in April 2008 alone. Prices touched over $1000 a ton on some days in April. Domestic food price and overall consumer price inflation has accelerated in most economies and the pace of poverty reduction in East Asia  in 2008 is - at a minimum - likely to slow .

A new World Bank report I have co-authored on Rising Food Prices in East Asia: Challenges and Policy Options argues that regional and international cooperation could play an important role in addressing the problem of surging food prices.   What, you say, is the World Bank advocating interference with market outcomes?  Well, it may be more a case of cooperation to undo the consequences of earlier interventions in the market which have contributed to the present high prices.  

For the record: The Bank is *not* warning about Thailand's rice export risks

Submitted by Jim Adams on Wed, 2008-04-23 22:22

I see there has been some blog chatter about the World Bank's position on Thailand's rice exports. Let me take the chance here to set the record straight: Thailand is a great international trading partner, it's commited to maintaining its rice exports, and we support this action. This is very important at this time of food price hikes and it's the responsible thing to do.

(The chatter --see some examples here and here-- started with a Bloomberg story  published yesterday).