Food monitors are concerned that people in West African countries who rely on international imports of wheat and rice are going to struggle to buy enough to eat this year due to high commodity prices.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said in a bulletin that poor global production of wheat means worldwide prices reached a record high in September 2007 and remained volatile in October.
Rice prices have also risen steadily since January 2007 according to the FAO, and high fuel prices have added higher shipping costs into the equation.
– Rarely has the world felt such a widespread and commonly shared concern about food price inflation, a fear which is fuelling debates about the future direction of agricultural commodity prices in importing as well as exporting countries, be they rich or poor, the bulletin said.
SENEGAL OG MAURETANIEN SÆRLIGT RAMT
Mauritania and Senegal are the two countries in the region which rely the most on international markets rather than domestic farming. Wheat is a staple food in both but all of it is imported.
Mauritania grows just 30 percent of the food its 3 million people need and imported wheat prices have exploded by over 75 percent there this year, from US$200 for a ton to US$356, according to the food monitoring group FEWSNET.
Wheat is used to feed humans and animals in Mauritania.
The main reason people moved to eating wheat was because it was less expensive. It became very important in basic diets.
In Senegal, the government has cut import tariffs on wheat yet there has still been a 12 percent increase in the cost of bread in the last month.
FLERE LANDE I FAREZONEN
According to FEWSNET, the situation is being compounded in Senegal and Mauritania and in northern Nigeria by poor harvest of other traditional cereals grown in the region.
In northern Nigeria, sorghum production was curtailed by an early end to the rainy season, while in Mauritania, Senegal and Nigeria rains started too late in the year for maize to grow well.
Other countries in West Africa have not experienced the same problems and production of traditional cereals in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger has been average or above average.
But Guinea Bissau, where imported rice is a staple, is a concern. The World Food Programme has warned that prices for rice have increased by 40 percent in 2007 compared to 2006.
The immediate concerns are currently limited to the wheat and rice importing countries, but experts say a potential production deficit in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, could trigger a wider regional crisis later in the year.
– Reduced crop production in northern Nigeria might have serious implications for prices in the region and this would really complicate the situation, said Jean Senahoun, West Africa Economist at the FAO in Rome.
Even countries with good harvests could have food shortages, he said.
– Good harvests in one country in West Africa does not necessarily mean food security for the people that live there as West Africa’s highly integrated markets mean food moves freely from one country to another.
Kilde: www.irinnews.org
