Business Report & Independent Online
April 27, 2008
Pin Oudam (13) gets a free breakfast of rice, fish and yellow split peas every morning at his school in Kampong Speu, Cambodia's poorest province. Next week he won't.
The World Food Programme (WFP) cut off rice deliveries to 1 344 Cambodian schools last month after prices doubled and suppliers defaulted on contracts. Schools will run out of food by Thursday, depriving about 450 000 children of meals, the WFP estimates.
"Over time, this will result in higher malnutrition rates and lessen the physical and mental development of these children at a critical period in their lives," says Paul Risley, a Bangkok-based spokesperson for the UN agency.
Record rice prices are forcing some relief agencies to cut rations. The WFP, which helped feed 960 000 people in Cambodia in January, is limiting aid to the neediest people in the country, including tuberculosis and Aids patients, pregnant women and babies. This week, the agency said its representatives in 78 other countries were facing similar choices.
That may leave Pim with an empty stomach. His grandmother, Nov Yim, estimates she will need 180kg of rice to feed a family of nine until the next harvest begins in September. A 50kg bag costs about 150 000 riel (about R290) and may rise further, she says.
"At those prices, I can only afford half of what I will need," says Yim. "Without the extra rice, my children and grandchildren will go hungry.
"The WFP had to end the Cambodian school programme because suppliers did not honour contracts to deliver 4 000 tons of rice at $390 (R2 965) to $450 a ton, says Thomas Keusters, the agency's representative in Cambodia.
Other local dealers quoted prices of $620 a ton that were out of the agency's reach, he says. A year ago, the WFP paid about $260.
The programme aims to keep children in primary school and prevent them being dragged into the workforce or prostitution.
About 69 percent of the children in Kampong Speu province, 50km west of Phnom Penh, leave school before completing the sixth grade.
Te Huoy does not want that to happen to the two grandchildren, ages four and 14, she is raising in a Phnom Penh slum.
Huoy earns 3 000 to 5 000 riel a day selling empty beer cans and other refuse from the streets of the capital and says it is barely enough to pay for rice, fish and sausages. She spends three-quarters of her income on food, up from half six months ago.
"I'm already old and will die soon," says Huoy, who never received an education. "My hope is that my grandchildren can continue to go to school."
The WFP originally budgeted $3.4 billion to feed 73 million people worldwide this year.
Last month, it appealed for an additional $500 million to cover higher food costs. That shortfall was revised to $756 million this week.
In Sri Lanka, two of the Rome-based aid agency's suppliers defaulted on contracts in the past two weeks, Risley says.
In East Timor, where the government supplies rice to the WFP, authorities have not been able to purchase the cereal from Vietnam because of a ban on exports from that country.
Other relief agencies are also feeling the pinch.
Net food aid flows have been declining for more than a decade, and subprime mortgage losses that led to 1.5 million home foreclosures in the US last year may reduce cash donations, says Chris Conrad, a director of World Vision International's food programming group in Johannesburg.
Global food aid deliveries dropped to 6.7 million tons in 2006 from a high of 17 million tons in 1993, according to a 2007 report from the WFP.
"The pie is getting smaller," Conrad says. "For years, everybody was saying the US or other developed economies could feed the world. I don't think they can any more."
April 27, 2008
Pin Oudam (13) gets a free breakfast of rice, fish and yellow split peas every morning at his school in Kampong Speu, Cambodia's poorest province. Next week he won't.
The World Food Programme (WFP) cut off rice deliveries to 1 344 Cambodian schools last month after prices doubled and suppliers defaulted on contracts. Schools will run out of food by Thursday, depriving about 450 000 children of meals, the WFP estimates.
"Over time, this will result in higher malnutrition rates and lessen the physical and mental development of these children at a critical period in their lives," says Paul Risley, a Bangkok-based spokesperson for the UN agency.
Record rice prices are forcing some relief agencies to cut rations. The WFP, which helped feed 960 000 people in Cambodia in January, is limiting aid to the neediest people in the country, including tuberculosis and Aids patients, pregnant women and babies. This week, the agency said its representatives in 78 other countries were facing similar choices.
That may leave Pim with an empty stomach. His grandmother, Nov Yim, estimates she will need 180kg of rice to feed a family of nine until the next harvest begins in September. A 50kg bag costs about 150 000 riel (about R290) and may rise further, she says.
"At those prices, I can only afford half of what I will need," says Yim. "Without the extra rice, my children and grandchildren will go hungry.
"The WFP had to end the Cambodian school programme because suppliers did not honour contracts to deliver 4 000 tons of rice at $390 (R2 965) to $450 a ton, says Thomas Keusters, the agency's representative in Cambodia.
Other local dealers quoted prices of $620 a ton that were out of the agency's reach, he says. A year ago, the WFP paid about $260.
The programme aims to keep children in primary school and prevent them being dragged into the workforce or prostitution.
About 69 percent of the children in Kampong Speu province, 50km west of Phnom Penh, leave school before completing the sixth grade.
Te Huoy does not want that to happen to the two grandchildren, ages four and 14, she is raising in a Phnom Penh slum.
Huoy earns 3 000 to 5 000 riel a day selling empty beer cans and other refuse from the streets of the capital and says it is barely enough to pay for rice, fish and sausages. She spends three-quarters of her income on food, up from half six months ago.
"I'm already old and will die soon," says Huoy, who never received an education. "My hope is that my grandchildren can continue to go to school."
The WFP originally budgeted $3.4 billion to feed 73 million people worldwide this year.
Last month, it appealed for an additional $500 million to cover higher food costs. That shortfall was revised to $756 million this week.
In Sri Lanka, two of the Rome-based aid agency's suppliers defaulted on contracts in the past two weeks, Risley says.
In East Timor, where the government supplies rice to the WFP, authorities have not been able to purchase the cereal from Vietnam because of a ban on exports from that country.
Other relief agencies are also feeling the pinch.
Net food aid flows have been declining for more than a decade, and subprime mortgage losses that led to 1.5 million home foreclosures in the US last year may reduce cash donations, says Chris Conrad, a director of World Vision International's food programming group in Johannesburg.
Global food aid deliveries dropped to 6.7 million tons in 2006 from a high of 17 million tons in 1993, according to a 2007 report from the WFP.
"The pie is getting smaller," Conrad says. "For years, everybody was saying the US or other developed economies could feed the world. I don't think they can any more."
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