The world faces a “food price shock”, the Food and Agricultural Organisation warned, after its benchmark index of farm commodities prices shot up to a nominal record last month, surpassing the levels of the 2007-08 food crisis.
The warning from the UN body comes as inflation is becoming an increasing economic and political challenge in developing countries – including China and India – and is starting to emerge as a potential problem even in developed nations, including the UK and those in the eurozone.
Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the FAO in Rome, said the spike was “alarming”, but added that the situation was not yet a crisis similar to 2007-08, when food riots rocked more than 30 poor countries from Bangladesh to Haiti.