Cost of Shipping Food Cuts Deep Into Aid Budgets
September 6, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Rising grain prices, expensive gasoline, and increased demand in China and India have all contributed to a spike in the cost of shipping food to needy countries, reports Reuters.
Since 2004, the cost of shipping a ton of food from the United States rose from $363 to $611, a 68 percent jump, the article reports. And because the aid budgets of the United States and United Nations have not kept up with that inflation, charities have been able to ship far less food.
As a result, global-relief shipments bottomed out at 6.7-million tons of food last year, the lowest in 34 years. At the same time, the article reports, the number of hungry people has increased by 4 million each year, and wars have made the need for food more acute.
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