Food prices set to double by 2030

01/06/2011

Food prices are set to sky rocket by 180 per cent by 2030 unless action is taken, Oxfam has warned.

Over the past two years prices of commodities in the Western world have increased sharply, doubled according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Forecasters have held climate change as the factor most responsible for these sharp price hikes.

However, with agricultural yields unable to keep up with the rapidly expanding global population, the gap between demand and supply is increasing which is forcing prices up.

Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam, said: “The food system must be overhauled if we are to overcome the increasingly pressing challenges of climate changes, spiralling food prices and the scarcity of land, water and energy.”

The United Nations announced earlier this year that ‘world food prices had hit record highs, surpassing levels in 2008 when soaring prices sparked riots in many countries’.

The Guardian reported last month the average global price of cereals jumped by 71 per cent, to a new record in the year to April.

It’s been predicted that the price of stable foods such as corn, which has already reached a record price peak, will more than double in the next 20 years.

The report carried out by Oxfam suggests that the current world food market is ‘constructed by and on behalf of a tiny minority (and) its primary purpose is to deliver profit for them’.

As well as causing severe problems for the world’s poorest countries, the price increases will also impact western nations including UK consumers.

Oxfam has called for co-operation to tackle the problems in the global food system.

Tags; Current UK Economy, Housing Debt and Bills, Income Worries and Debt, Budgeting Advice, Young Family Finances,

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