The World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Thursday that global food prices had reached "in the danger zone."
"We are in the danger zone, because prices have already risen, and inventories for many raw materials are relatively low," Zoellick said at a news conference in Washington, opening meetings Spring International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The situation is not the same for all foods, but in any case "it is the poor who are most affected," he said.
"For many economies of East Asia who focus on rice, the situation is somewhat better.But rice is a commodity that is exchanged very few markets. Only 7% of production is. So if something happened it would manifestly more pressure "on prices, he added.
"Food prices are 36% higher than they were a year ago and remain near their 2008 peak. Already, 44 million people fell below the poverty line since last June," noted Mr. Zoellick.
If the food price index established by the World Bank "is still increasing by 10%, we estimate that 10 million more people will fall in extreme poverty below the $ 1.25 a day," he warned."And a 30% increase would add 34 million people in the world's poor, who are already 1.2 billion.
Zoellick called the G20, chaired by France, which has made food a priority, to take steps to control price volatility and enhance food security.
So the countries that impose an embargo on exports of food products should "at least exclude humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) of this embargo," said Zoellick.
"These are not food prices that have caused crises in the Middle East and North Africa. But they have worsened," he remarked.
