Cargill warns on self-sufficiency

The drive towards self-sufficiency in response to last year’s food crisis will fail, a top executive at Cargill has warned, adding that the idea that countries “can be self-sufficient in every single food is a nonsense”.

The warning by the world’s largest trader of agricultural commodities comes ahead of next Monday’s UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome, the first since 2002. The summit was prompted by the surge in the price of staples such as rice and wheat, which last year hit record highs, sparking food riots in countries from Bangladesh to Haiti.

Countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have moved towards self-sufficiency in response to the crisis, either by boosting agricultural production at home through subsidies and import tariffs or acquiring overseas farmland.

The so-called “farmland grabs” gained notoriety after an attempt by South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics to secure a huge chunk of farmland in Madagascar, which contributed to the collapse of the African country’s government.

Paul Conway, senior vice-president at Cargill, said: “Promoting a free and open trading system whereby countries can produce what they are best able . . . and surpluses can be traded across international boundaries is the right way to go.

FT.com