An Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories

[acmavm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/business/worldbusiness/19palmoil.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin


A worker on a plantation in Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, collects oil palm fruit. Malaysia is the center of the global palm oil industry.

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: January 19, 2008

KUANTAN, Malaysia — Rising prices for cooking oil are forcing residents of Asia’s largest slum, in Mumbai, India, to ration every drop. Bakeries in the United States are fretting over higher shortening costs. And here in Malaysia, brand-new factories built to convert vegetable oil into diesel sit idle, their owners unable to afford the raw material.

This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food.

The food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, based on export prices for 60 internationally traded foodstuffs, climbed 37 percent last year. That was on top of a 14 percent increase in 2006, and the trend has accelerated this winter.

In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests have erupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs.

According to the F.A.O., food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

“The urban poor, the rural landless and small and marginal farmers stand to lose,” said He Changchui, the agency’s chief representative for Asia and the Pacific.

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I posted something to this effect a few months ago. And all I have now is a big 'raspberry' and a loud PFFFFFT to all the arrogant schmucks here who had the ignorant gall to tell me how wrong I was and how using food and grains wouldn't affect the food supply at all.

[dkf]

1. The tragedy is tht ethanol is a waste of time

It makes me ill to think we are using our food supply for energy and now there won't be enough to feed everyone.

[patch1234]

2. the price of edible oil is ? in Malaysia ?

I can't get to the article.

If possible, please convert price to
dollars

otherwise, I have no idea
if (or not) they are complaining about the price
going from one to two cents a litre.

[Nihil]

4. i.e., You don't care as long as it's "only" a 100% rise?

> otherwise, I have no idea
> if (or not) they are complaining about the price
> going from one to two cents a litre.

Whilst I'd guess that you meant your comment to indicate that a
"trivial change" of one cent means it's a storm in a teacup, the
fact that you treat a 100% rise as trivial shows how out of touch
you are with the world beyond your doorstep.

I don't know about the Malaysian price change but my brother works
for a soap manufacturer here in the UK and they are very concerned
about their jobs simply because the type of palm oil they use as a
soap base has gone up over 300% in just over twelve months ...
Their major customers have refused to allow a price increase and
there is no way that the shortfall can be clawed back by "increased
efficiency" within the factories.
:-(

[patch1234]

5. if I knew the real price, I could make a more informed judgement

about what is going on here.


consider Indonesia, and kerosine.
at one time, don't know about current,
kerosine was subsidized to the point
that people would buy all they could,
as sell to passing ships.
The whole country is being ripped off by those doing so.
crime is encouraged, etc.

back to Malaysia and cooking oil, is the price
subsidized to the point that there is waste?
Same Q, are people buying the stuff to put in trucks?

I understand the point of getting cooking oil to poor
subsistence farmers, but when people want to
put the stuff in vehicles, somethings gotta give.

something similiar in the US would be if the price
of a box of corn flakes goes up a buck, when everybody
with two or more working brain cells knows that the corn price
contribution is a dime (up from a nickel).
.....................
about the soap, what prices are we talking about, please be as specific as you can.
for example, the offered price of a finished bar is ?
the cost of the component (being complained about) is ?

[LeftCoast]

3. Sure looks like overshoot

This is going to get very ugly.