ATHENS: Soaring grain prices that sparked protests in several countries could be a good thing for farmers in both Europe and the developing world, the European Union s top agriculture official said Friday. I think it is to the benefit of the European agricultural sector and also in the developing world, those countries that have exports, they now earn more money, said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel. Speaking in Athens after meeting Greek Agriculture Minister Alexandros Kontos, Fischer Boel said better harvests expected in the EU, Ukraine, Russia and Australia this year could bring more normal supply levels. But food prices would not fall back to 2006 levels, she said, adding: To be honest, I think that s a good thing. Soaring prices for basic grains - rice, wheat, soybean and corn - have provoked protests and rioting in at least half a dozen developing countries in past months and has toppled the government of one. Last weekend, Haiti s premier Jacques-Edouard Alexis was ousted in a no-confidence vote after more than a week of violent demonstrations over rocketing food and fuel prices that left at least five people dead. Protests have also erupted in Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania and Bangladesh, where 10,000 garment workers rioted near the capital Dhaka last weekend. Fischer Boel on Friday said developing countries that import food should be helped with development money to improve their agricultural sector and infrastructure. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said that since March 2007 prices for soya beans have risen 87 percent and those for wheat 130 percent at a time when global grain stores are at their lowest levels on record. It attributed the trend to increased demand in emerging market powerhouses China and India as well as the alternative use of maize and soya beans for biofuels, which has also brought Brussels into the debate. The EU has come under fire for backing biofuels but the bloc this week vowed to stick to its goals as part of a climate change package. We don t have an enormous danger of too much of a shift from food production to biofuels production, Fischer Boel s spokesman Michael Mann said in Brussels. Fischer Boel on Friday said she favors speeding up research on developing second-generation biofuels which experts say could consist of leaves, straw and pond algae. The first generation of green fuels - biodiesel and ethanol - are made from wheat, maize, colza, sugar beet and other crops also used for human and animal feed.
