Worried about the New World Food Crisis

Worried about the New World Food Crisis : Tremendous heat in Russia until it reaches 38 degrees celsius has caused droughts and fires. Hundreds of people died. Other impacts, the world worried about the food crisis of 2008 repeat itself.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the temporary suspension of exports of wheat and barley (a type of wheat for animal feed). Russia is an exporter of wheat barley exporter number three and number two in the world.

Wheat prices surged in a number of stock exchange following the announcement, ie up 50 percent compared to the beginning of July. On the Commodity Exchange in Chicago wheat prices rose from 500 to 750 U.S. cents U.S. cents per bushel last week.

The World Bank has asked a number of countries for not following in the footsteps of Russia. For the record, the food crisis in 2008 exploded due to some food exporting countries to close after food supply, they will worry less.

Barley price increase will raise the price of beef, chicken, until the milk because the barley used for livestock feed. British daily, The Guardian, reported that consumers soon forced to buy meat and bread with an expensive price. Beer prices go up soon because the price of raw materials also rose.

The threat of food crisis was strengthened. Australia, which is number four wheat exporters in the world, are likely to experience drought in the west. On the other wheat-producing countries, namely Canada, wheat production also tend to be unsatisfactory following the very wet weather during the wheat growing season.

The increase in wheat prices has raised the price of seeds of other commodities, like corn and soybeans, up 0.8 and 0.2 per cent. Both the commodity is a commodity substitution. This increase could push derivatives products such as vegetable oils and meat.

Follow-up impact on the price of rice due to drought in Russia may not have happened. However, for the price of rice, the price increase could occur if the floods in China, North Korea, and Pakistan severely impacted. Decline in food production in that country could also trigger a food crisis. Floods in China have raised the price of rice. Since July, there have been 9 percent increase in rice prices, the highest since October last year.

Still, not a little reminiscent of the conditions above are just a game speculators. Those who support this opinion, said the Russian wheat exports aimed at Middle Eastern markets. Cessation of Russian wheat exports also will not damage the market because of the abundant wheat harvest occurred in European countries and the United States.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) cut its estimate of world wheat production of 676 million tons to 651 million tons. However, FAO says, the new food crisis has no basis. According to FAO, wheat production if a problem until the winter of this year, will have serious consequences on the supply of wheat next year.

However, the current food price fluctuations remains to be carefully watched because of rising trend in world food prices also began to appear. FAO's own report in July has mentioned the world food price index reached 165.5. This figure is much higher compared with July last year which is only 147.

Domestically, despite forecasts of food production is still good, we need to be aware of the impact of increasing world food markets as Indonesia to import some food commodities such as wheat, meat, and a number of other products.