UN: Historic Rise in Global Food Prices in 2022

The United Nations Trade and Development Program (UNCTAD) confirmed that the year 2022 witnessed an unprecedented historical rise in food prices, indicating its concern about the escalation of global wheat prices.

UNCTAD said, in a statement, that the rise in wheat prices and the accompanying depreciation of the local currencies of developing countries, and the rise in their import bills, pose a challenge to food security worldwide, especially to food-importing countries.

The UN organization indicated that unlike what happened in previous food crises, developing countries are now facing a double burden, as they pay higher prices for the food they import, and this increase is exacerbated by the depreciation of their currencies against the US dollar, which also leads to the erosion of the fiscal margin. A number of developing countries need to recover from the "Covid-19" pandemic.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced billions of dollars in additional humanitarian aid to address severe food insecurity in Africa, as it faces an ever larger and more complex food crisis.