World food prices took another leap of 12.6% in March in the overall price index of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), reaching an index value of 159.3 which is by far a record level. The global food crisis of 2011-12 has now been left behind, and populations are being left to demonstrate or riot. It should not be forgotten that extremely severe drought across the entire western half of North America is a significant contributor to this food hyperinflation, one factor which has been completely ignored for a generation by “policymakers” who want to attribute all evils to the Russian “invasion” of Ukraine. The world average wheat price was up just about 20% in just the month of March; the corn price index up 19%; the vegetable oil index up 23.2%. The most “moderate” increases are in sugar, 20% higher for the year, and dairy, 23.6% higher for the year. (https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/17502-fao-world-food-prices-hit-record-highs)
While reporting these increases, the FAO is estimating 2022 world crop production as roughly the same or slightly higher than 2021 for many products. That is not likely to happen given the fertilizer situation, another one which “policymakers” attribute to energy prices when four global fertilizer cartels are making record profits on the back of the cut-off of Russia’s large fertilizer exports. A commodity analyst quoted by CNBC April 7 gave some figures for fertilizer hyperinflation from 2021 to now: Potash traded in Vancouver from $210 to $545 per metric ton; urea for Mideast delivery from $268 to $887 per metric ton at the Chicago Board of Trade; in some countries, like Peru, the prices of all fertilizers to farmers have quadrupled.
This is the situation in which the World Food Programme’s reports of the number of people facing starvation this year have already grown from over 200 million to more than 300 million, and are forecast by a leading Chinese agricultural economist to reach 1 billion.
