and a key supplier to north africaif governments are not working collectively and cooperatively to ensure there is a global supply if theyre just putting their nations first you can end up in a situation where things get worse said benton of chatham househe warned that frenzied shopping coupled with protectionist policies could eventually lead to higher food prices a cycle that could end up perpetuating itselfif youre panic buying on the market for next years harvest then prices will go up and as prices go up policy makers will panic more he saidand higher grocery bills can have major ramifications bread costs have a long history of kickstarting unrest and political instability during the food price spikes of 2011 and 2008 there were food riots in more than 30 nations across africa asia and the middle eastwithout the food supply societies just totally break benton saidunlike previous periods of rampant food inflation global inventories of staple crops like corn wheat soybeans and rice are plentiful said dan kowalski vice president of research at cobank a 145 billion lender to the agriculture industry adding he doesnt expect dramatic gains for prices nowwhile the spikes of the last decade were initially caused by climate problems for crops policies exacerbated the consequences in 2010 russia experienced a record heat wave that damaged the wheat crop the government responded by banning exports to make sure domestic consumers had enoughthe united nations measure of global food prices reached a record high by february 2011given the problem that we are facing now its not the moment to put these types of policies into place said maximo torero chief economist at the uns food and agriculture organization on the contrary its the moment to cooperate and coordinateof course the few bans in place may not last and signs of a return to normal could prevent countries from taking drastic measures once consumers start to see more products on shelves they may stop hoarding in turn allowing governments to back off x5 retail russias biggest grocer said demand for staple foods is starting to stabilize in the us major stores like walmart inc have cut store hours to allow workers to restockin the meantime some food prices have already started going up because of the spike in buyingwheat futures in chicago the global benchmark have climbed more than 6 in march as consumers buy up flour us wholesale beef has shot up to the highest since 2015 and egg prices are higherat the same time the us dollar is surging against a host of emergingmarket currencies that reduces purchasing power for countries that ship in commodities which are usually priced in greenbacksin the end whenever theres a disruption for whatever reason berg said its the leastdeveloped countries with weak currencies that get hurt the most bloomberg published on mar 25 2020 at 1024 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post