World Food Day marked

posted on 16/10/2011: 55 views

The World Food Day is celebrated by the world each year on 16 October, which coincides with the anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO on 16 October 1945.

The World Food Day aims at raising awareness of efforts to combat hunger around the world. This year's World Food Day theme is: "Food Prices - From Crisis to Stability," which is chosen to shed light on food prices upswings, which pushed millions of people around the world into extreme poverty, and address actions be done to mitigate impacts on the most vulnerable population.

The food prices issue is of crucial importance, as it is associated with the basic needs of consumers regardless of their different levels. The impact of this price rise reflects heavily on low-income as well as fixed-income groups, due to the high relative weight of food expenses in the structure of expenditure for those categories, in addition to the relative stability of income in the face of rapid changes in prices. Therefore, international organisations concerned with food related issues constantly monitor and observe food prices and its availability.

Governments are also keen to follow up monthly prices of consumer goods, particularly food commodities in order to spot changes in the price levels. Some organisations, link between employees annual wage increase, and the rate of inflation, since the measurement of the rate of inflation is a necessary factor which helps in the formulation of policies and economic plans; and is also a criteria for assessing the investment climate in any country.

The year 2010 compared to 2009 has seen significant rise in world prices of food commodities, as the FAO Food Price Index registered an increase of 17.2 per cent. This was attributed to the hikes in the price indices of meat by 13.7 per cent, dairy products by 40.6 per cent, cereals by 4.4 per cent, oils by 27.8 per cent and sugar by 16.6 per cent. All these increases impacted the prices of domestic goods in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, as a result of relying mainly on imports for the provision of food commodities. - Emirates News Agency, WAM

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