Oxfam reaction to FAO announcement on global food prices

Responding to an announcement by the FAO that global food prices remained steady during April but cereal prices have gone up by as much as 5.5% since March, Luca Chinotti, Food Policy Advisor for Oxfam at the FAO in Rome said:

“Last months small decline in global food prices has already come to a full stop and prices of cereals have surged to a new record high. High and volatile food prices continue to represent a major risk for poor people who spend up to 80 percent of their weekly income on food and prevent poor small-holders from sustainable livelihoods.

"A catalogue of government failures created the current food price crisis. Governments meeting at the G20 Agriculture Ministers meeting in June need to start making amends. They must help calm the global food markets by regulating excessive speculation, phase out the biofuels subsidies and quotas which reward companies for diverting food into fuel and help vulnerable countries build up food reserves. A policy of do little or do nothing will only see the crisis grow and leave millions more men, women and children hungry.”

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