Rethink conversion of grain and oilseed crops to biofuel, says Egypt

The use of grain and oilseed crops to make biofuels should be “looked at in great depth,” as countries face food shortages and high prices, Egypt’s minister for agriculture and land reclamation said.

“The problem of the increase of food prices has been very difficult in Egypt,” Aymane Farid Abu Hadid said through a translator during a webcast of a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation meeting yesterday in Rome.

“We have large numbers of people suffering from malnutrition, which is why those foodstuffs should be used for food and not fuel.”

Egypt is historically the world’s largest wheat importer. The government is providing its poorest consumers with food ration cards, he said.

— Bloomberg