Strategic food stocks guard against supply shock: WFP

Some experts believe such stocks could help avoid a repeat of the deadly food riots seen in 2007 and 2008 in countries including Mozambique and Haiti, when soaring prices left many poor, importing countries unable to secure enough food.

The WFP has been asked to prepare a report on how pre-positioned food stocks could help avoid similar incidents in future, which it is due to present to farm ministers from the Group of 20 economies in Paris at the end of June.

“We do feel it is a viable proposal. Like any insurance system, it's a small investment to buy time — perhaps 45 days, 60 days — so that other options can be sought,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in an interview.

“One thing that we have to remember is that most nations that can afford it keep on hand a supply of food so they don't get in a shortage of food, especially for an import-dependent nation,” Sheeran told Reuters in Brussels.

Such stocks would be used only to provide a short-term solution to supply disruptions, and not in response to price spikes, she said.

“There are other ways to help nations meet their balance of payments, or their need to be able to have financing options. This is really to be able to deal with what we saw in 2008, which was some nations faced with an absolute lack of supply.”

Sheeran rejected the argument put forward by some opponents to the idea of strategic food stocks that they could distort global food trade and prices.

A key question the WFP was asked to consider in its report was the geographic requirements for possible stocks, and Sheeran said there was a strong case for a regional approach.

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