France Wants Emergency G20 Grains Meeting

By CnAgri2012-09-19 19:37:28 Print

France has called an emergency meeting of G20 farm ministers for mid-October to discuss curbing price swings on grain markets, the French president's office said, after a year of drought and record prices renewed fears of a crisis in food supplies. According to Reuters, France currently presides over a grains body created last year under the Group of 20 major economies and it has made several proposals in recent days, including the development of strategic stocks and a halt in the expansion of biofuels that use food crops.

Paris said in a statement it was calling a meeting of a Rapid Response Forum under the G20 agriculture body, AMIS, on the United Nations World Food Day which is held on Oct. 16.

It issued the statement after talks between French President Francois Hollande and Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The forum would follow a scheduled AMIS meeting earlier in October at which officials from G20 countries would discuss measures to curb supply and demand imbalances in agricultural markets, it said.

The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States has sent corn and soybean prices to record highs and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, has raised fears of a global food crisis like the one that led to rioting in poor countries in 2008.

France chairs AMIS until the start of October when the United States assumes the rotating presidency.