Intervention on biofuels and the Japan WTO rice stock to stabilise world food prices
Résumé
On international markets, prices of grains (wheat, maize) and vegetable oils (rapeseed, sunflower, soybean, palm) have been rising since mid-2020. Biofuels play a major part in this increase, and the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has exacerbated it. Biofuels in fact link the price of these commodities to that of crude oil: when the crude oil price rises, the biofuels industry increases its demand for maize and vegetable oils. Temporarily limiting this industrial usage would reduce the price of these commodities. Moreover, in case of an increase in rice prices, one solution would be to authorise Japan to export the rice stock it has built up under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. In order to prevent future crises, these two levers could be activated as soon as world prices of these agricultural commodities reach predetermined levels.
Mots clés
Price
price stabilisation
price policy
food product
grain
wheat
maize
rice
vegetable oil
rapeseed oil
sunflower oil
palm oil
soybean oil
crude oil
biofuel
fossil fuels
economic crisis
food security
domestic market
world market
food stock
WTO
Africa
United States
world
developed country
developing country
Russia
Ukraine
European Union countries
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