Global: Food commodities speculation and food price crises

On the eve of an emergency FAO-meeting devoted to instability in agricultural markets, the UN Special Rapporteur has published a study analysing the impact of speculation on food price volatility. The study shows that a significant portion of the increases in price and volatility of essential food commodities can only be explained by the emergence of a speculative bubble. In particular, there is a reason to believe that a significant role is played by the entry into markets for derivatives based on food commodities of large, powerful institutional investors such as hedge funds, pension funds and investment banks, all of which are generally unconcerned with agricultural market fundamentals.