Reuters | 16 November 2009
- France, Brazil want more stable commodities prices
- French minister warns of "predatory" land purchases
- Both want faster, deeper measures to combat hunger
By Stephen Brown and Daniel Flynn
ROME, Nov 16 (Reuters) - France called on Monday for stricter regulation of agricultural markets to counter price volatility and said "predatory" farmland purchases in poor countries should be halted.
Speaking at a U.N. hunger summit, French farming minister Bruno Le Maire and his Brazilian peer said the two countries would work together on hunger and their priority was to "fight against volatility in agriculture markets, we must establish stability in commodity prices".
Asked at a joint news conference if creating commodity stockpiles would help, Le Maire said it was "one of the possible solutions. I have also suggested to Europe the start of a futures market to stabilise the prices of agricultural products".
Food prices have fallen back after hitting record highs in 2008 and many experts warn sudden rises are still likely.
"Let's be very clear, the food crisis is not over," said European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Karel De Gucht at a separate news conference.
"We are starting to see a rebound in gross oil consumption largely driven by demand from Asia, that will almost certainly mean food price rises," he added.
LAND ACQUISTIONS IN FOCUS
Le Maire added that millions of hectares of farmland in poor countries had been bought up in 2008 and 2009, after a spike in commodity prices last year prompted rich food-importing nations to buy land in the developing world to feed their populations.
Describing this as "predatory investments in farmland", he said it was "worrying because our objective is countries' food autonomy ... and we believe there should be measures against this so that independence of production can be guaranteed".
Brazilian Agrarian Reform Minister Guilherme Cassel said his country had, just one month ago, passed legislation by decree regulating the purchase of farmland by foreigners.
"This is based on the idea that land fulfils a social role and is a common good that is needed for the production of food," Cassel told the news conference.
The close cooperation between France and Brazil on food security echoes their joint position on climate change ahead of the environment summit in Copenhagen in December, with the pair issuing a joint statement on Saturday calling for the United States and China to make significant concessions on emissions.
Before the three-day U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation summit on food security that begun on Monday, Le Maire said the summit declaration ducked targets on agricultural aid and the fight against hunger, dropping a commitment to feed the world properly by 2025 and spend $44 billion a year on farm aid.
"In France and Brazil we believe that we must go faster and further in the fight against hunger," said Le Maire.
(Reporting by Stephen Brown and Daniel Flynn, FAO newsroom; editing by Sue Thomas)
