Food prices continue to soar

This year the theme of World Food Day is "Food prices: from crisis to stability." Rarely could the subject have been more relevant for economies and people across the globe.According to the UN, world food prices surged to an all-time high back in February. Even though many items have fallen in price since then, food prices are still high and have doubled over the past five years. The trend for food prices is clearly up.

Demand is rising. Supply is not keeping pace. Several factors explain this worrying development. On the positive is that as emerging economies grow, more people are moving out of poverty, finding jobs and are able to feed themselves or spend more on food. As they do, families are changing their diets as they have access to a greater variety of food. Rising demand for meat is just one example. Global food consumption per person has risen on average by one fifth since the 1960s.