World Food Import Bill in 2010 Will Top $1 Trillion, FAO Says
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World food imports will exceed $1 trillion this year, close to the record reached in the food-crisis year of 2008, on surging commodity prices, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization said.
The global cost of importing foodstuffs will jump 15 percent to $1.026 trillion in 2010, from $893 billion last year and compared with $1.031 trillion in 2008, the Rome-based FAO said in a report today. The world faces “harder times ahead” unless production of major food crops rises next year, it said.