World Food Prices Highest in 2 Years

Canadians have been feeling the pinch of rising prices at the supermarket this summer.

Restrictions on wheat sales following a major drought that destroyed crops in Russia and the loss of maize, rice, cotton and sugar cane washed away by floods in Pakistan have raised international food prices to their highest level in two years, reports the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Between July and August the cost of a basket of meat, dairy, cereals, oils, fats and sugar rose 5 per cent, according to the Food Price Index. While food prices remain 38 per cent down from their June 2008 peak, Reuters reports six people were killed in a violent protest in Mozambique on Wednesday over the rising cost of essential foods.

The number of hungry people in the world rose to over a billion in 2008 when food stocks crashed to their lowest level in 26 years, sparking a hike in prices and riots in nearly forty countries.

Despite this year's higher prices, FAO representative Abdulreza Abbassian told the Associated Press that there are sharp differences between the current prices situation and 2008, assuring that stocks remain more plentiful today, even with the lower forecast in 2010 cereal production.