World Bank calls for policies to control spiralling food prices
Updated
The World Bank says longer term policies are needed to help countries affected by rising food prices.
The Bank says current high prices are likely to continue into next year, and the cost of most crops won't drop below 2004 levels for several years.
Price rises have spurred protests in Egypt, Haiti, and Burkina Faso.
The Bank's Dr Danny Leipziger says the high cost of food is likely to increase poverty rates in affected regions.
"In some regions, for example in Africa we have in the last five or six years seen some progress in a number of countries but these are the very same countries that now may well be the most affected by increases in food prices as well as energy," he said.
In a policy paper, the World Bank say the price of most crops is likely to stay above 2004 levels until 2015.
Factors including high oil prices, bad weather, and a rising demand for food in Asia have pushed up prices, causing violent protests in a number of poorer nations.
World Bank President Robert Zoellich says he fears the rising cost of food could hamper poverty eradication in some countries.
