Financial Meltdown Worsens Food Crisis

In June, governments, donors and agencies gathered in Rome to pledge $12.3 billion to address the world's worst food crisis in a generation. But only $1 billion has been disbursed. An additional $1.3 billion, which had been earmarked by the European Commission for helping African farmers, is tied up in bureaucracy, with some governments now arguing that they can no longer afford to give up that money.

"The financial crisis is providing an excuse for people across the spectrum -- governments, multilateral organizations, companies -- to not do the right thing," said Oxfam spokeswoman Amy Barry.

The precarious aid situation is compounded by export taxes and bans imposed this year by a number of grain- and fertilizer-producing nations, including China, India, Pakistan, Ukraine and Argentina.

E.U. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has criticized export restrictions because they "drive up world prices and cut off supplies of raw materials." Such restrictions, he said, "invite a cycle of retaliation that is as economically counterproductive as it is politically hard to resist," Mandelson said last month.

China -- the world's biggest grain and rice producer and the biggest exporter of certain types of fertilizer -- could see its moves having ripple effects on vulnerable countries.

"The world relies on China for food security," said Anthea Webb, China country director for the U.N. World Food Program. "The world supply and demand is a big equation, and China is a big part of that."

China's new taxes on fertilizer exports, which went into effect Sept. 1, range from 150 to 185 percent. Chinese authorities said they need to ensure that prices are low at home to protect their own farmers and ensure an adequate supply of food for their residents.

Although the measure has been good for China, it has been devastating to other countries. A dozen Chinese fertilizer companies said they had stopped exporting this month.

"If we export abroad, we can make zero profit or even a loss," said Liu Chengyong, the sales manager at Henan Yuzhongao Technological Agricultural Co., which produces about 150,000 tons of fertilizer a year.

It is unclear whether the export taxes are legal under the World Trade Organization. Technically, the WTO bans all export taxes as barriers to free trade but allows for exceptions in emergency situations.

Soaring fertilizer prices triggered by China's taxes are deepening the food crisis in parts of Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Eustace Muriuki, general manager of Mea Ltd., the second-largest fertilizer importer for East Africa, said the price of a bag of fertilizer is currently about five times what it was a little more than a year ago.

Muriuki imports about a quarter of his fertilizer from China. He said losing China as a supplier would be particularly painful because it has been a relatively cheap and easy option, with so many shipping vessels traveling between China and Africa.

Betty Kibaara, an analyst with the Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development in Nairobi, said China's decision is only going to make a bad situation worse in Kenya.

Kenya's post-election crisis this year displaced hundreds of thousands of farmers who planted their cornfields late or not at all, and often without fertilizer because the price was too high.

The current harvest, which continues through November, is producing a yield that is worse than expected. And if fertilizer prices are still soaring during the next planting season, the country's deficit of corn -- its staple food -- will only grow. "We are in big trouble," Kibaara said.

McCrummen reported from Nairobi. Researcher Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.