April 10, 2008 (LPAC)--A desperate scramble is underway to line up food from nation-to-nation deals, or nation-to-company pledges, since the world grain markets have blown out. , because the producer nations will retain it for home consumption (India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt). A similar dynamic prevails for the 100 millions of tons or so of wheat traded annually. (Russia has suspended wheat exports, until April 12, when it will be reviewed).

Low-income nations, forced over recent decades of globalism, to become reliant on world markets for food imports, are in a crisis of existence. The scope of this crisis is indicated in study of import dependency by the Economic Research Service of the USDA (in February, Amber Waves):

"To identify countries that are highly sensitive to increases in grain prices, ERS ranked the 70 low-income countries by grain import dependence and daily calorie consumption. Six of the low-income countries (Eritrea, Liberia, Haiti, Georgia, Burundi, and Zimbabwe) depend on grain imports for more than 40 percent of their diets and consume an average of less than 2,200 calories per day. Eritrea, for example, is highly dependent on food imports: 87 percent of grains, 51 percent of vegetable oils, and 100 percent of sugar. Export earnings cover only 24 percent of Eritrea's import bill; the remainder is filled by external assistance. Eritrea's daily calorie availability of 1,465 in 2005 was among the lowest in the world....

"Of the world's least developed countries (50 countries, as defined by the United Nations' FAO, 32 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa), the import share of production [volume of imported foodstuffs taken as a percent of domestic production) for wheat jumped from 93 percent in 1980 to more than 130 percent in 2005. For sugar, the share soared from only 4 percent in 1980 to more than 65 percent in 2005. A similar pattern is seen for vegetable oils, with the share rising from about 6 percent to 80 percent."

One of the Sub-Saharan countries hard hit is Ivory Coast. From 1990 to the early 2000s, grain production remained level. As the USDA reports, "To maintain grain supplies for a growing population, grain imports rose, and have been virtually equal to production for the past 5 years or so." In Zimbabwe, grain output has fallen by about half since 2000, with a rise in import-dependence and vulnerability.