World food import bill may go up to $1.94tr this year: FAO

 

World food import bill may go up to $1.94tr this year: FAO

 

ISLAMABAD: The world food import bill is estimated to rise to $1.94 trillion in 2022, higher than previously expected, according to the Food Outlook Report released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) on Friday.

The forecast presented in the FAO’s biennial Food Outlook would mark an all-time high and a 10 per cent increa­­se over the record level of 2021, altho­u­­­gh the pace of the increase is expe­c­ted to slow down in response to higher world food prices and depreciating currencies against the US dollar.

Both weigh on the purchasing power of importing countries and, subsequently, on the volumes of imported food, the FAO report says.

The bulk of the increase in the bill is accounted for by high-income countries, due mostly to higher world prices, while volumes are also expected to rise. Economically vulnerable country groups are being more affected by higher prices.

The aggregate food import bill for low-income countries is expected to remain almost uncha­n­ged, even though it is predicted to shrink by 10pc in volume terms, poin­ting to a growing accessibility issue for these countries, the report says.

“These are alarming signs from a food security perspective, indicating importers are finding it difficult to finance rising international costs, potentially heralding an end of their resilience to higher international prices,” the report warns.

The Food Outlook report, which breaks down food trade patterns by food groups, warns that existing differences are likely to become more pronounced, with high-income countries continuing to import across the entire spectrum of food products, while developing regions are increasingly focused on staple foods.

In this context, the FAO has welcomed the approval by the Inter­nat­ional Monetary Fund of a Food Shock Window, broadly based on FAO’s Food Import Financing Facility proposal, as an important step to ease the burden of soaring food import costs among lower income countries.