Food prices hit record high, Australia floods add to fears

Source: Globe & Mail, January 5th, 2010

World food prices have hit their highest on record, and there are fears that the devastating floods in Australia could push them even higher.

The Food and Agricultural Organization, an arm of the United Nations based in Rome, said today its food price index climbed in December to its highest since it began collecting data in 1990. The measure, which tracks costs of items such as rice, wheat, corn, sugar meat, rose more than 4 per cent from a month earlier.

That will raise fears over the possibility of another crisis like that of 2007-2008, when countries such as Bangladesh and Haiti were the scene of riots, The Financial Times reports. The index has now topped those levels.

There are also fears that the flooding in Australia, a key producing region for sugar, for example, will boost prices even more.

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