Washington - Global food prices held near three-year highs
in July and stocks were low, piling on pressure on the world's poor, the World
Bank said on Monday.
The World Bank Food Price index increased 33% in July from a
year-ago and stayed close to 2008 peak levels, with large price rises in maize, corn and sugar.
"Persistently high food prices and low food stocks
indicate that we're still in the danger zone, with the most vulnerable people
the least able to cope," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
High food and energy prices have stoked inflation pressures
around the globe, but the problem has been more acute in developing nations.
Although food prices are moderating in most advanced
countries, uncertainties about the global economy and the political situation
in the Middle East and North Africa mean oil prices will likely remain
volatile, keeping inflation on the radar.
While overall food supply has improved since April - mainly
because of good wheat harvests in the United States and Europe and better maize
yields in Argentina and Brazil - global stocks remained "alarmingly"
low, the World Bank said.
Global output of grains in 2011/12 is projected to be 3%
higher than the estimated output for 2010/11.
But the stocks-to-use ratio for maize currently stands at
about 13%, the smallest since the early 1970s. Wheat and rice stocks also remain
well below their late 1990s and early 2000 levels.
"Coupled with the fact that the realisation of the
forecast yields is itself contingent on benign weather conditions in the major
exporting countries, the low stock environment has created a situation in which
even small shortfalls in yields can have amplified effects on prices," the
World Bank said.
The price of maize was up 84% in July from a year ago and
sugar increased 62%.
The World Bank said the move into production for biofuels
was also driving up the price of maize, noting that in the first four months of
2011, US maize demand for ethanol production rose 8% from the same period last
year.
Rice prices rose 11% in the last quarter after
declining since February. Sugar prices increased 29% between May and July amid
worries about Brazil's lower-than-expected sugarcane harvest.
"Given that sugar and vegetable oils together account
for roughly 50% of the World Bank's food price index, volatility in these
prices is likely to have unexpected effects on food prices in the months
ahead," the World Bank said.