Global food prices will continue to rise in 2021 for the seventh year in a row, spurred by the continuing pandemic, drought and other factors, according to a United Nations panel.
Overall prices have risen 18% since May, according to the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization. Corn, soybeans, palm oil and other commodities are peaking in price.
The UN identified several contributing factors, including: continuing disruption due to the pandemic; high demand from China; drought in South America and other regions; and, in the longer term, increased demand from areas undergoing economic recovery from the pandemic. Soybean supplies are already tight enough so that some sort of rationing will have to be applied, a Cargill executive said this week as reported by Bloomberg.
The situation will be especially bad for poorer nations without social-safety nets, UN officials said.
“Food inflation is a reality,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist at the FAO. “While people have lost income, they are as we speak going through a tremendously difficult hardship.”
