U.K., Brazil Urge G20 Action on Volatility in Food Prices

The U.K. and Brazil urged the G20 countries to take action to curb food-price volatility and end export bans, according to a report from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Brazil has 19 percent of the world’s arable land and 33 percent of global rainforests. Export bans don’t increase sustainable production and “simply move price volatility problems elsewhere in the world,” according to the report released today. G20 agriculture ministers will meet in June in an attempt to find solutions to rising food costs.

“Food price volatility hits the poorest the hardest,” U.K. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, who is visiting Brazil, said in the report. “Less volatile food commodity prices will mean fewer price spikes, less food price inflation and can help to avoid the sorts of riots we’ve seen over food prices in many parts of the world.”

Costlier food contributed to riots across northern Africa and the Middle East that toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year.

Food prices fell in March, the first monthly decline since June after rising to a record in February as commodities increased, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report yesterday. Corn has more than doubled in the past year and wheat is up 69 percent.