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Soaring global food prices threaten to push tens of millions of Asians into extreme poverty and cut the region’s economic growth this year, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report Tuesday. Coupled with skyrocketing oil prices, the spike poses a serious setback for developing Asia after having rebounded rapidly and strongly from the 2008 global economic crisis, said chief ADB economist Rhee Changyong. ‘Left unchecked, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction made in Asia,’ Rhee said in a statement. Domestic food inflation in developing Asian nations hit 10 per cent at the start of this year, with double-digit rises in the price of wheat, corn, sugar, edible oils, dairy products and meat, the Manila-based institution said. If this rate continues, as is likely, 64 million people in developing Asia could be pushed into extreme poverty and economic growth could be reduced by up to 1.5 percentage points this year, the bank warned. Vietnam has been one of the hardest hit nations in terms of rice inflation, despite being a major exporter, according to the ADB. It has seen domestic rice retail prices shoot up 36.7 per cent since June last year, while Indonesia and Sri Lanka have endured increases of least 21 per cent. China recorded rice price rises of 12.6 per cent, near the average for developing Asia. Wheat price increases were most severe in Kyrgyzstan, with a jump of 67 per cent since June last year, and Bangladesh, 50 per cent, according to the ADB. Wheat prices spiked by about a third in Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Tajikistan. On a positive note, the bank said there was ample room to improve rice and wheat yields, with the world’s top 10 rice producers averaging just 4.074 tonnes per hectare (2.47 acres) compared with top performing Egypt’s 9.883 tonnes.
