In its biannual report, titled, Food Outlook, the Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that the global food bill will go up by 1.5 percent to $1.98 trillion in the current calendar year.
In the year 2021, it had gone up by 18 percent and in 2022, it had increased by 11 percent. The report says that the import bill for the developed countries will expand but it will contract for the least developing countries by 1.5 percent countries and for net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs), it will decline by 4.9 percent.
The Food Outlook says, The decline in food import volume in a concerning development on both group, suggesting a decline in purchasing capacity. These concerns are amplified by the fact that lower international prices for several primary food items have not, or at least not fully, translated into lower prices at the domestic retail level, suggesting that cost-of-living pressures could persist in 2023.
In the report, the rise in production, trade, utilization and stock levels all over the world is expected to go up.
The production of food items such as rice, coarse grain, oil crops, milk, sugar, meat and fish and fishery products are likely to crease.
However, the production of Wheat all over the world is expected to come down as compared to the its production in the last season. The global production of coarse grain is likely to increase by 3 percent.
The production of rice worldwide is expected to go up by 1.3 percent. However, the global trade of rice is expected to decrease by 4.3 percent. With reference to Pakistan, it has been anticipated that the export of rice will decline.
The production of sugar is likely to go up by 1.1 percent to 177.5 million tons as compared to the production of sugar in 2021-22. As per report, the production of oil crops, milk are expected to enhance. The production of aquatic animals is likely to increase in this year.