U.N. Agency Calls Meeting on Spike in Food Prices

A U.N. food agency said Friday it has called a special meeting on the recent spike in food prices, responding to fears of a repeat of the shortages that led to riots in parts of the world two years ago. The announcement by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization followed Russia’s decision to extend its ban on wheat exports. The ban has been held as partly responsible for the 5 percent increase in food prices worldwide over the last two months, to their highest level in two years. Mozambique saw deadly riots this week triggered in part by an increase in the price of bread. There has also been anger over rising prices in Egypt and Serbia, while in Pakistan — where floods destroyed a fifth of the country’s crops — the prices of many food items have risen 15 percent. Drought in Russia — and the country’s subsequent restrictions on wheat exports — forced a sudden sharp rise in wheat prices, the agency said. Higher sugar and oilseed prices also were factors in the higher index...more