Author(s)
Baffes, JohnPublication date
2011-06-08Keywords
AgricultureFinance
Food security
Resource scarcity
Markets
Food prices
Development in Practice Journal
DiP
Metadata
Show full item recordJournal
Development in PracticeDocument type
Journal articleLanguage
EnglishDescription
The recent commodity-price boom was one of the longest and broadest of the post-World War II period, and, not unexpectedly, it reignited discussions about resource scarcity as well as proposals to ‘manage’ reminiscent of the 1970s. This contribution looks at the factors that are likely to shape commodity markets in the longer term and concludes that a stronger link between energy and non-energy commodity prices is likely to be the dominant force, especially in terms of food prices. Demand by emerging economies is unlikely to put additional pressure on the prices of food commodities, although it may create such pressure indirectly through energy prices. The effect of biofuels on food prices has not been as great as originally thought, but the use of commodities by investment funds may have been partly responsible for the 2007–08 spike.<p>This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis.</p>Pages
8ISSN
0961-4524EISSN
1364-9213ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/09614524.2011.562488