Price monster craves grain, maize
The price monster in Namibia has been taking the bread out of the consumer’s mouth over the past year with this staple inflation drastically rising from 7.5% in September 2021 to 13% in September this year.The heat will be turned on even higher with the diesel price jumping by N$1.98 per litre this week and Namib Mills increasing bread prices by 4% on 14 November.
Average bread inflation in the country in the first nine months of this year was 9.99%, compared to 6.63% in the same period in 2021, data from the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) shows.
According to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Namibia is one of 48 countries worldwide which is highly exposed to food insecurity.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) rank Namibia as a “hunger hotspot”, while the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises describes the country as enduring a major food crisis.
BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE
Global wheat prices started climbing on Monday following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain export deal.
Russia at the weekend said it was indefinitely suspending its involvement in the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
The UN’s plan was supposed to pave the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets to help stabilise spiralling food prices worldwide and stave off famine.
According to the IMF, Ukraine and Russia together supply 30% of globally traded wheat, 20% of maize, and 75% of sunflower oil. As a result of the war between the two countries, agriculture production in Ukraine is expected to decline by 25% to 40% this year.
In Namibia, inflation for maize rose from -3.5% in September 2021 to 14.8% in the same month this year. The figure for cooking oil spiked from 26.7% to 36.1%.
The IMF says the global outlook for food prices remains “highly uncertain” due to existing supply bottlenecks, declining stocks of food staples, the challenges involved in marketing Ukraine’s current and future harvests, the still high prices of inputs like fertilizers and energy that affect agricultural output around the world, and the negative outlook for rice all weigh on food markets or can be expected to do so in the future.