Surging Food Import Costs Threaten World's Poorest, Warns World Agriculture Body

These high costs may persist for a sustained period as nearly all agricultural commodities have become more expensive, while a rally in energy markets could raise farmers' production costs, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

Food import costs across the world are expected to surge to record levels this year, piling pressure on many of the poorest countries whose economies have already been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Food Agency said on Thursday. These high costs may persist for a sustained period as nearly all agricultural commodities have become more expensive, while a rally in energy markets could raise farmers' production costs, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. "The problem is not the world facing higher prices," Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of the FAO's trade and markets division, told Reuters. "The issue is vulnerable countries."