Niël Terblanché
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has stated that the world food import bill is forecast to reach a new record this year.
According to a report by the FAO, it is estimated that the global food bill will rise to US$1.98 trillion in 2023, up 1.5 percent from 2022. It rose by 11 percent in 2022 and 18 percent in 2021.
The report states that the most economically vulnerable countries will be severely impacted by higher food prices that are driven by dampened demand.
According to the FAO, food imports by advanced economies will continue to expand while the import bill for the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is predicted to decline by 1.5 percent this year and that for net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs) to decline by 4.9 percent,
“The decline in food import volumes is a concerning development in both groups, suggesting a decline in purchasing capacity,” the biannual report from FAO’s Markets and Trade Division warns. “These concerns are amplified by the fact that lower international prices for a number of primary food items have not, or at least not fully, translated into lower prices at the domestic retail level, suggesting that cost-of-living pressures could persist.
A senior economist at the FAO, El Mamoun Amrouk, warned that rising food prices can lead to social unrest and increased financial challenges, that will undermine efforts to fight poverty and food insecurity.
According to the report, the global agrifood production systems remain vulnerable to shocks, stemming from extreme weather events, geopolitical tensions, policy changes and developments in other commodity markets, with the potential to tip the delicate demand-supply balances and impact prices and world food security.
