VOA新闻杂志2023--Export Restrictions Causing Food Prices to Rise

Export Restrictions¹ Causing Food Prices to Rise

Important foods like grains and cooking oil again are growing more costly² in many places around the world.

Observers say that is because countries have put export restrictions in place to protect food supplies at home. They also blame the price rise on weather conditions and the Ukraine war.

Caroline Kyalo is a 28-year-old who works at a hair salon³ in Kenya's capital Nairobi. She experienced the rising cost of food while planning meals for her two children. The price of onions has risen by 200 percent since neighboring Tanzania restricted agricultural exports. Kyalo tried a different kind of onion but those became too costly as well. Cooking oil and corn flour prices are increasing also.

So, she said, "I just decided⁴ to be cooking once a day."

East Africa has fertile land and a large workforce⁵. But the high cost of growing and transporting crops and a lack of rain have resulted in decreased local production. In the case of onions, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found that, in 2014, Kenya was getting half of its onions from Tanzania. Some traders have tried to get supplies from Ethiopia. Others have stopped selling onions altogether.

But Timothy Kinyua, who says prices have reached their highest level in seven years, promised he would sell the crop.

"It's something we can't cook without," he said.

Spreading food restrictions

Joseph Glauber is with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. He said Tanzania's onion limits this year are one example of the spread of food restrictions. He called it a "contagion," or something that spreads like an infectious⁶ disease. His organization says that 19 countries have put 41 food export restrictions in place. The restrictions include bans or taxes.

India banned the export of some rice earlier this year cutting one fifth of the world's export market. Myanmar answered with its own export bans. India has also restricted onion exports. The action sent prices climbing in Bangladesh.

Dry weather in Spain has hurt its olive⁷ crop causing European buyers to look to Turkey. But rising prices there led to export limits.

Morocco, which suffered a deadly earthquake recently, has also stopped exports of crops including onions, potatoes and tomatoes.

‘The new normal'

Over a period of years, food prices change sharply⁸. In 2007 and 2008, rice and wheat prices doubled. Glauber, who also is a former economist⁹ from the Department of Agriculture, said changes are likely to continue.

"I think increased volatility¹⁰ is certainly the new normal," he said.

For example, both Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of wheat, barely¹¹, sunflower oil and several other foods important to developing nations. The conflict between them interferes¹² with production by both.

Changes in weather are also affecting agriculture, observers say. El Niño is a periodic¹³ warm current in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is linked to changes in weather in several places around the world. Some scientists say climate change could make the El Niño current more severe affecting weather everywhere.

For example, a lack of rain in India means export restrictions there might not end with the new rice harvest in October.

Importers face added risk

Most at risk from weather changes are nations that depend heavily on imported food. The World Banks, for example, notes that the Philippines imports 14 percent of its food. However, recent storms could mean further crop deficits¹⁴. Rice prices there increased 8.7 percent in August. That is double the increase from the month before.

Since prices increased, Philippine food store owners say they are losing money. Thirty-two-year-old Charina Em owns a store in the Trabajo market in Manila.

"We cannot save money anymore. It is like we just work so that we can have food daily," she said.

Cynthia Esguerra is 66 years old and has several diseases. She said she has had to choose between medicines and food.

"I just don't worry about my sickness. I leave it up to God. I don't buy medicines anymore, I just put it there to buy food, or loans," she said.

Words in This Story

salon –n. a business that cuts hair and offers beauty treatments

volatility –n. the condition of changing sharply or unpredictably

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

3 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

6 infectious   

adj.传染的，有传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。
• What an infectious laugh she has!她的笑声多么具有感染力啊！

7 olive   

n.橄榄，橄榄树，橄榄色；adj.黄绿色的，黄褐色的，橄榄色的

参考例句：

• Have you eaten a kind of fruit called olive?你吃过橄榄这种水果吗？
• She likes olive because It'symbolizes peace.她喜欢橄榄色因为它象征着和平。

8 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

11 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。

12 interferes   

vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉

参考例句：

• The noise interferes with my work. 这噪音妨碍我的工作。
• That interferes with my plan. 那干扰了我的计划。

13 periodic   

adj.周期的，定期的，时而发生的

参考例句：

• Long long ago,we knew the periodic motion of a planet.很久以前，我们就知道行星的周期运动。
• These arrangements are subject to periodic reviews.这几项安排每隔一定时间须予复查。

14 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句