A mix of responses needed to address impacts of still-high world food prices, FAO says

At a UN General Assembly (UNGA) Second Committee side event, the Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the UN in New York, QU Guangzhou, called for a policy mix to ensure food access and availability in months ahead.

Today’s side event ‘The role of trade and logistics in getting food and energy to all,’ taking place on the sidelines of the UNGA Second Committee plenary negotiations, illustrated the challenges the world faces and proposed solutions in the face of rising food and energy prices. 

The head of the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and representatives of Member States, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), shipping, and research organizations spoke on the needs ahead in order to ensure access to affordable food and energy, especially among the most vulnerable populations. Discussions also helped map and assess the supply chain challenges that, together with conflict, climate change, economic slowdowns and downturns, and the ripple effects of COVID-19, are driving hunger levels further up. Keeping food accessibility in vulnerable countries as an issue of high concern was also discussed.

The Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the UN in New York, QU Guangzhou, outlined four points of action that FAO believes are crucial in the context of high world food prices, despite last month seeing a sixth consecutive monthly decline of the FAO Food Price Index.

Food, energy and agricultural input markets must be kept open and flowing smoothly

Despite a sixth consecutive monthly decline in world food prices in September, after the FAO Food Price Index reached an all-time high in March of this year, the international cost of food is still 5.5 percent higher than its value a year ago. Against this backdrop, Qu remarked that food, energy, and agricultural input markets must be able to operate without interference or interruption.

To this end, he explained how the G20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) – an interagency platform hosted in FAO – is supporting these efforts by enhancing food market transparency and encouraging coordination of policy actions. “The system has been playing a key role as well in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and on the heels of the war in Ukraine,” Director Qu added.

A second point of action is the need to ensure the supply of and access to food, with the Black Sea Grain Initiative already helping increase the availability of much-needed food and feed . Qu highlighted the need to ensure that vulnerable countries have funds to buy food in international markets. In this regard, he said that the recently approved IMF food shock window response instrument, which takes forward the Food Import Financing Facility proposed by FAO, complemented the Black Sea Grain Initiative and was poised to support vulnerable countries with rising food import bills.

Fertilizer prices and availability today will define crop yields and food prices next season

With higher energy prices come less affordable fertilizers, a vital input for farmers across the world. Ensuring their supply for the upcoming agricultural season was a third point of action FAO underscored. 

This could translate into farmers missing key planting seasons or ending up with lower yields ahead. High prices and lower availability of fertilizers pose a risk for next year, Qu said, who touched on recent developments and initiatives that are helping ease this pressure. 

This include the letters of comfort issued by the United States on the import of food and fertilizers, the European Union guidelines on how fertilizers from the Russian Federation can flow through its port en-route to developing countries, and even the ‘Save the Crops Operation’, on promoting access to fertilizers and other critical inputs to vulnerable countries. 

“Fertilizers are important, but not enough,” Qu said, adding that “they must be used efficiently,” which is why FAO is developing soil nutrient maps to help in this direction.

A fourth point of action shared by FAO was on the need to pursue measures that go beyond international food markets. Strengthening social protection, supporting local food production, reducing food loss and waste, and transforming agrifood systems are all central as well if we are to ensure that they are more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. 

Related links

• Watch the recording and read the full statement from FAO.
• Follow latest related updates from the Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS).