Everybody in India is outraged by President Bush’s claim that the world food prices is skyrocketing because of the rising food consumption in India and China. With the increasing income of the middle class, thier food consumption has also increased and people eat more meat, so more grain is fed to animals. Seven tonnes of grain produce only one tonne of beef. The conversion ratio is 4 to 1 for pork, 2 to 1 for poultry. India has a middle class of 350 million, larger than the US population. The Indian mass and ministers found bush statement meaningless. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya fumed that Bush was “out his mind.” Defence minister Anthony called it “a cruel joke”. Analysts blamed Bush for causing the food crisis by diverting a fifth of US maize to produce ethanol. Moreover per capita grain consumption was five times higher in the US than in India, mainly because of animal feed.

No doubt the Indian middle class has prospered, but two of its major constituents - brahmins and banias - are traditionally vegetarian. Hence, rising income has not translated into a huge demand for meat, as in China, but their consumption of dairy products, fats, fruit and vegetables has increased. This cannot cause sky-high world grain prices. India can be blamed for rising food price but for very different reasons. India is among the 40 countries that have curbed food exports to control domestic prices. So, food supply to the world market has shrunk, fuelling world prices. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warns that prices will stay high unless the export curbs are eased.

Categories: Business
Tags: export curbs, food exports, food price, fruit and vegetables, world food prices