Gulf Times: Global Food Prices at All-Time Highs

Doha, April 06 (QNA) - In its editorial on Wednesday, English-language newspaper Gulf Times said that global food prices are now at all-time highs, with a benchmark UN index soaring more than 40% over the past two years. The newspaper said that soaring costs for food staples in import-dependent the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) countries are putting people's resilience at a "breaking point," according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). A new IMF paper showed that climate disasters in the Middle East and Central Asia injured and displaced 7 million people in an average year, causing more than 2,600 deaths and $2 billion in physical damage, the paper added. According to the WFP, across the Mena region, fallout on food prices from the war in Ukraine could drive millions more into "food poverty", the paper pointed out. War in one of the world's major breadbaskets, plus the sanctions imposed on Russia as well as measures taken by some countries to protect their own food supply have raised the threat of a full-blown hunger crisis, Gulf Times concluded. (QNA)