Many countries turn a large number of grain into fuel. Who has raised the global food price?
Recently, the rising trend of global food prices has accelerated significantly. The latest data of the United Nations Food and agriculture organization show that the global food price index reached a new high in March.
FAO:
World food prices rose to an all-time high
In fact, the rise in grain prices is not a recent phenomenon. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the global grain price index, which is the most important index of grain prices, has increased rapidly. The global grain price index rose more than 65% from 2020 to March 2022, reaching 170.1.
Recently, the UN Food Program announced that mankind may face "the biggest food crisis after World War II". UN Secretary General Guterres says as many as 1.7 billion people are exposed to the destruction of food, energy and financial systems, which is exacerbating poverty and hunger.
Global grain production has increased year after year
Grain producing countries generally have good harvests
In recent years, the world's grain output has increased year after year. It is estimated that the global grain output in 2021 / 22 will be nearly 2.8 billion tons, and the global per capita disposable grain will be about 710 kilograms, excluding meat, vegetables, fruits and other foods. In fact, there is no shortage of food, but where has all the food gone?
In 2021 / 22, the total grain output of the United States was 570 million tons and that of Australia was about 54.9 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%.
In recent years, global grain production has increased year by year. From 2018 to 2022, the total global grain output was 2.65 billion tons, 2.71 billion tons, 2.78 billion tons and 2.8 billion tons respectively.
Large quantities of grain into fuel
Oil prices indirectly boost food prices
Since there is no shortage of food in the world, why do food prices keep hitting new highs? On April 12, US President Biden announced emergency measures to expand biofuel sales to curb soaring gasoline prices.
US President Biden: the environmental protection agency is planning to issue an emergency exemption to allow the sale of E15 gasoline using more ethanol from local crops throughout the United States.
US ethanol consumption
It is 2.5 times the annual grain output of Australia
Biofuel oil mainly includes bioethanol and biodiesel. At present, it is mainly produced from grain, which can partially replace gasoline and diesel made from oil. Recently, global oil prices have soared, and the demand for biofuels as alternatives has increased sharply.
The United States is the world's largest ethanol producer. In 2021, the ethanol output of the United States increased by 8% year-on-year, about 45 million tons. According to the calculation that one ton of biofuel ethanol requires about three tons of grain raw materials, the United States consumes about 135 million tons of grain. It is about 2.5 times of Australia's total annual grain output.

Biodiesel, another biofuel in the United States, will produce more than 11 million tons in 2021, which also consumes a lot of food. According to the data of the International Grain Council, in 2021 / 22, the United States consumed about 170 million tons of food for the production of biofuels, accounting for 47.4% of the total food consumption in the United States, while 32.9 million tons of food were used for food, accounting for only 9.2% of the total food consumption.
Not only the United States, Brazil produces 23.4 million tons of bioethanol every year and consumes about 70 million tons of grain. In 2021, the EU produced 17 million tons of biodiesel and consumed about 50 million tons of grain. According to incomplete statistics, only the United States, Brazil and the European Union consumed about 300 million tons of food for biofuel production in 2021.

Zhong Yu, director of the industry Office of the Institute of agricultural economy and development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences: at present, more than a dozen countries are developing bioenergy, such as the United States, Brazil, Indonesia and Canada. Under the background of atmospheric change, non renewable resources such as oil and coal are more difficult to exploit. In the future, more and more agricultural products and grains will be used as biomass energy.