In this Financial Times article, the UN is expected to make public a report stating that inflated food prices will persist for the next 10 years thanks to higher demand of commodities especially in emerging economies like China.

It seems that the new reality is that higher food prices will be the norm. Alexander Müller, of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation states that “prices are unlikely to return to the low levels of previous years.”

However the silver lining, if there is one, is that food prices is predicted to be lower than the records we have been experiencing so far this year.

Perhaps the most sobering statement in the article is this:

“As the global food import bill has entered the trillion dollar territory, the food import bill of the poorest countries which faces a food-deficit, is likely to climb to $169bn, 40 percent more than in 2007.“

For better or worse, hopefully the trade group of Latin American countries (called ALBA), can offset the inflation by increasing domestic production for their own markets.

Technorati Tags: food price, commodities, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Latin America

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