“The entire issue of food prices needs to be seen in a global perspective and not just seen as an issue emanating from specific countries. There is a need for greater flow of global information on food production and consumption, and cuts in food wastage,” Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII, said in a reply to the comment of US President George W Bush. Bush had cited India’s middle class as one of the factors for the spiralling global food prices.
The CII said that there could be various reasons for the current crisis. A task force is being set up to look into this area.
According to CII, the main factors for the crisis include diversion of food to bio-fuels, changing weather conditions across the globe leading to droughts, which mean lower food production in several countries, and huge agricultural subsidies that encourage leaving agricultural land uncultivated to maintain global prices of agricultural products.
