Food is closely related to people's lives, so food prices have always attracted people's attention. Recently, the report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that global food prices have risen for nine consecutive months. What is the specific situation? Let's take a look at it.
What is the situation of global food prices rising for nine consecutive months?
According to the report, the FAO food price index 1 16 points in February, up 2.4% from the previous month. Global food prices rose for the ninth consecutive month, among which the quotations of sugar and vegetable oil rose the most.
Sugar prices rose by 6.4% month-on-month; The vegetable oil price index rose by 6.2% month-on-month, reaching the highest level since April 20 12. The prices of palm oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil all rose.
What are the factors that affect the rise of food prices?
1, high oil price
Food needs to be transported to reach people, and transportation needs oil, so oil prices also affect agriculture.
In addition, petroleum by-products are an important part of fertilizer, accounting for 20% of the cost of grain harvest.
High oil prices have increased the planting cost of corn, wheat and soybeans by 40%, and food prices have risen.
2. Climate change
Extreme weather environment caused by climate change, such as greenhouse gas emission, leads to temperature rise, dry land with little rain, and rainwater flows off the land instead of being absorbed into the groundwater level, causing floods and seriously affecting crop yield.
However, this kind of influence is generally short-term, and the supply of planting will be guaranteed in the later stage, and the food price will tend to be stable.
3. National policies
(WTO) limits the amount of subsidized corn and wheat that countries can increase the global inventory.
The United States, the European Union and some developing countries heavily subsidize their agricultural industries.
Farmers in these countries gain an unfair trade advantage.
The WTO restricts inventory to reduce this advantage.
But it also reduces the amount of food in short supply.
This increases the volatility of food prices.
4. Economic level
As people become richer, people all over the world need more meat, and animals needed to feed meat foods need more grains than cereals. Increased meat demand means higher grain prices.
Image source China Grain Network
5, raw materials rise
For example, the rise in the prices of many vegetable oils, such as rapeseed oil and rapeseed oil, is due to the rapid rise in the prices of rapeseed raw materials, in addition to changes in the relationship between supply and demand.
Restricted by factors such as land and labor force, domestic rapeseed production is limited, and basically depends on imports. Canada is the largest source of rapeseed imports in China. Because harmful substances have been detected in its rapeseed, domestic enterprises are more cautious in importing rapeseed, and rapeseed imports have declined.
From 1 month to1month in 2020, the total import of rapeseed in China was 2.434 million tons, which was at a historically low level.
However, the temporary storage and destocking of rapeseed oil in China makes the domestic rapeseed oil supply tight and induces the price increase.