"We have to take action" against world food risks and volatility of food prices, French Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Bruno Le Maire said here on Thursday as he warned of a global food crisis.
Addressing reporters at a press conference here, Le Maire said: "We all have a moral obligation to succeed when it comes to fighting against the volatility of agricultural prices and also fighting against world food risks."
France, which is the current chair of the Group of 20 major economies (G-20), is the largest agriculture country in Europe. Earlier on Thursday, Le Maire met with both the president of the UN General Assembly, Joseph Deiss, and UN Secretary-general Ban Ki- moon on French proposals to fight volatility of food prices and the potential of a risk toward a global food crisis.
"We have to provide specific solutions to this problem," he said, citing the risk of food riots due to the increase of global food prices.
Investment in global agriculture is "crucial," he said, especially for the most impoverished countries in the world, whose needs should be specifically addressed.
He also called for more readily detailed information on the " reality of global food stocks" and more transparency. "When the agricultural product is low, when there is a strong demand, the fact that we have such little information on the actual reality of the stocks, that increases price volatility," Le Maire said.
Better regulation of the financial markets dealing with agricultural commodities is needed, Le Maire also noted.
"We believe this as well, speculation on the agricultural markets also worsens the volatility of agricultural prices and it' s unacceptable that we can have speculation on hunger of the world, " he said.
On Tuesday, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick warned that rising food prices are at a dangerous level, and global cooperation is needed to tackle the increasingly challenging issue.
According to data released by the Washington-based international financial institution, rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June as food costs continue to rise to near 2008 levels.