/ 25 March 2008

UN food agency issues emergency plea for $500m

Food rationing will shortly be imposed on millions in desperate need unless donor countries make good a $500-million shortfall, the United Nations agency that combats starvation warned on Monday.

Soaring fuel and grain prices have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to send out an ”extraordinary emergency appeal” to about 80 governments pleading for the money by May 1.

The warning comes as Egypt mobilises its army to bake more bread and overcome severe shortages that have led to disturbances in long queues forming outside bakeries. Four people have died in clashes amid claims that subsidised flour has been sold off for profit on the black market.

The WFP letters, despatched before Easter, explain that if that sum is not received, supplies handed out to tens of millions of refugees and malnourished people every day will have to be cut.

The WFP, which has its headquarters in Rome, supports three million people daily with emergency aid in Darfur. Last year it gave food to 83-million people but this year’s figure is expected to be significantly lower due to the increased cost of food.

In the letter to major donor nations, the organisation’s executive director, Josette Sheeran, said the WFP was trying to deal with the problem by purchasing 80% of food in local and regional markets.

”But even with our mitigation efforts, the cost of our food purchases has risen 55% since June 2007. We urge your government to act quickly on this request so that we may avoid cutting the rations for those who rely on the world to stand by them in times of abject need.”

The rise in commodity prices is making it more difficult to plan ahead, she said. In one country a supplier recently broke a deal and paid a penalty in order to renegotiate the contract at a higher price. ”The increases show no sign of abating any time soon,” Sheeran added.

The appeal quoted Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, as saying: ”This is the new face of hunger, increasingly affecting communities that had previously been protected.”

Sheeran said the agency needed an extra $375-million in its 2008 budget for food and $125-million to transport it.

Food riots in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Morocco, the WFP says, are evidence of the growing crisis.

”We do not have the ability to reach as many people as we would like because of rising food and fuel prices,” a WFP spokesperson said on Monday. ”The $500-million appeal is on top of our annual appeal for $2,9-billion from donor countries.”

The only glimmer of hope is that farmers in developing countries should benefit from higher prices and receive more investment.

Last month WFP officials described the increase in the global price of basic foods as being caused by a perfect storm of a rise in demand for animal feed from increasingly prosperous populations in India and China, the use of more land and agricultural produce for biofuels, and climate change. The oil price has settled at above $100 a barrel and shipping costs have climbed as a consequence. — Â